


The Price of Flame

by digitaldreams



Category: Fire Emblem Series, Fire Emblem: Fuukasetsugetsu | Fire Emblem: Three Houses
Genre: Angst, Canon Compliant, Canon-Typical Violence, Character Study, Church of Seiros (Fire Emblem), Edeleth Big Bang (Fire Emblem), F/F, Garreg Mach Monastery (Fire Emblem), Garreg Mach Officers' Academy (Fire Emblem), Hurt and comfort, One Shot, Relationship Study, Slow Burn
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-11-20
Updated: 2020-11-21
Packaged: 2021-03-10 04:01:45
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 5
Words: 35,041
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27647213
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/digitaldreams/pseuds/digitaldreams
Summary: “They say the goddess held the Crest of Flames.”Flames had brought her death, and they had brought her life.~~~~~Edelgard heard stories of a woman bathed in fire that mortals called the goddess. However, reality paints a far more brutal picture than ancient tales would care to portray, leaving a young girl scarred with snowy white and bloodied crimson while pleading with an unhearing entity. Faith turns to enmity, and Edelgard doubts that anything can pull her free of the animosity she possesses for the distant figure known as Sothis.And then came the Ashen Demon, who fulfilled every word of cindered steps and embered breaths, and Edelgard learned just how quickly rage and hatred could turn to admiration and love.[Written for the Edeleth Big Bang 2020]
Relationships: Edelgard von Hresvelg/My Unit | Byleth
Comments: 2
Kudos: 63
Collections: Edeleth Big Bang 2020





	1. Part One: Before

**Author's Note:**

> At long last, the day has arrived! I’ve been looking forward to releasing this story for quite some time. I’ve been working on it since June, and after many months of work, I’m able to release it!
> 
> Before we get into the piece itself, I want to go over a few important things. This piece was written for the Edeleth Big Bang 2020. I collaborated with an artist on it, and you can find a link to her social media [here.](https://twitter.com/witchesgonewild) Kate was lots of fun to work with, and you should totally support her art. She made two lovely pieces for this story that you will find at their appropriate positions during the work, and she did an incredible job on them both. 
> 
> Next, I want to discuss the format of this story. It’s split into five parts primarily due to its length, but it was written as a one shot. However, I realize that most people won’t want to read a 35,000+ word piece as a one shot, so I split it up in chunks based on time frame. The chapter lengths are pretty uneven because this piece was written as a one shot, and I think that it should ultimately be considered as such when you read it. 
> 
> With all of that said, I think that about covers what I wanted you to know before reading the piece. I hope that you enjoy “The Price of Flame”!

Edelgard leaned gently against the torso of her older sister, Therese, her light brown hair spread out behind her. A blanket was wrapped around the two sisters as they looked fondly ahead at the flames dancing within the fireplace nearby. The gentle warmth and ruby glow reflected upon Edelgard’s pale features as a smile graced her lips.

“They say the goddess held the Crest of Flames.”

Edelgard looked up as Therese spoke. Her sister was captivated by the serene swaying of the embers among the bricks, and she seemed starstruck when the words tumbled from her lips. Confusion manifested itself upon Edelgard’s face, and she frowned.

Before Edelgard had the chance to ask why Therese had brought such up, her sister continued. “In ancient times, the goddess had the power of pure fire running through her veins. That inherent power gave birth to the future and all the life that would inhabit it,” Therese explained. She never removed her gaze from the fireplace. “I imagine it would be lovely to be in that same position.”

Edelgard smiled gently, looking back to the fire as she repositioned herself beneath the blanket she and Therese shared. “You want the power of fire?” she questioned softly, curiosity wandering into her tone.

Therese nodded, and a few strands of her own light brown hair fell down to Edelgard’s face. Therese brushed it away without hesitation. “Of course… How could I not? All life comes back to fire, Edelgard. Imagine having the power to create a future that could be whatever you wished. Wouldn’t that be incredible?”

Edelgard nodded. “Yeah… I suppose it would,” she agreed. Silence hung in the air, and all that could be heard was the crackling of embers and ash from nearby.

When the quiet finally drew to a close, it was Therese who broke it. “I want to learn how to use fire magic,” she said firmly. “I know it’s not quite the same as being a goddess, but I suppose it has a few similarities.”

“I bet she’d be proud of you,” Edelgard smiled, looking up to her sister with admiration. “The goddess, I mean. Anyone who follows in her footsteps must surely earn her pride.”

Therese let out a small laugh. “I sure hope so… Being able to create whatever you wish in the blink of an eye, all with the power of fire… It sounds amazing.” She adjusted the blanket to only sit around her sister before turning to face Edelgard with a mischievous grin. Therese raised her right hand, and Edelgard watched with wide eyes as sparks came to life from out of thin air. A small orb of fire forged itself, and the flames swirled with their own sense of grace. “I’ve already been practicing.”

Edelgard giggled, unable to muster any further words. She watched as the flames continued to move on their own. Her amethyst eyes were filled with hues of crimson beauty, and there was nowhere she would have rather been than basking in the glory of fire.

~~~~~

The darkness was unforgiving.

Edelgard hunched over at the center of a large room shrouded in shadows. It was somewhere beneath the ground, but the details of such couldn’t have mattered less to her in that moment. Her hands were pressed firmly against her eyes as tears flowed down her cheeks.

Blood was dragged haphazardly along the walls of the room, and Edelgard felt sick whenever she looked at it. However, the worst part was what had earned her tears in the first place, and she couldn’t stop the water from flowing when she was forced to acknowledge the brutal reality staring directly at her.

There was a body stretched out before her, and Edelgard recognized it as being one of her older brothers. Matthias was the fourth of the eleven children to be born, and he had been the first one to die.

The brutal experiments always left Edelgard a shadow of her the self she had come to know when growing up. She rooted herself in the idea that at least she still drew breath. Nobody had died up to that point, and as low of a standard that was, it was something she could take comfort in. She had ten familiar faces to smile at, twenty loving arms to wrap around her body as she sobbed from confusion, terror, and hatred.

But that no longer held water. Matthias had taken his final breath before Edelgard was shoved into the room by the figures wearing black. She was forced to confront the truth of the matter: her brother was dead, and there was no way for him to return. By the time she had arrived, his skin had already grown cold, a freezing sensation that seeped into his bones and made Edelgard feel as if all warmth was being stolen from her fingers the instant she pressed them against the side of his neck.

Despite this, she found herself sniffling back her tears and looking up to the ceiling. “G-Goddess… I-If you can hear me… Help…” Edelgard pleaded, letting salty drops slip from her face and onto the notable wound on Matthias’ side. She closed her eyes, seeing only the still expression on her brother’s face in her mind. Crimson anger flashed inside her, and she had no way of fighting the truth. Instead of bothering to mount a defense, she simply cried.

It was far from the first time that she had sobbed for the goddess to come and bring them salvation. The higher being must have existed somewhere, and if she was watching, she had to do something to save Edelgard and her siblings, right? If that was the case, then why was Matthias dead?

Edelgard couldn’t keep herself upright, and she fell onto her side, still crying out in pure anguish. “G-Goddess… Please…” she whispered. Her lips refused to form any further words, so she didn’t bother forcing herself further. Sobs wracked her small body, and her cries echoed throughout the room, but her pleas fell on the ignorant ears of a goddess who was not bothering to listen.

~~~~~

The bloodshed had only continued in the days after Matthias’ death. It was hard to say how much time had passed since Edelgard first discovered his corpse. The beginnings and ends of each day blended together in a blur of darkened crimson and raw grief, and she had lost count of the nights ages ago. It was impossible to calculate how much time had passed without a way to see the sun rise and fall with each passing day. Edelgard felt as if she was living in a vacuum, and the only truth that she had was death.

Therese had been the final one of them to fall.

By the time her sister had passed, Edelgard scarcely had tears left. Shock manifested on her face when she found the tenth corpse, the last of her siblings, but little else remained of her. She was nothing more than an empty husk. No matter how many times she had prayed with Therese in the darkness to the goddess for some salvation born of fire, nothing happened.

And now, she was left to pray alone.

The mages had left her alone, and she pulled her knees to her chest in the small cell that had come to be known as her room. Once upon a time, she had shared it with her sisters, but one by one, they disappeared, never to return to the damp, crowded space. These hazy evenings were left only to Edelgard, and she didn’t know what to do with herself.

Once upon a time, she would have turned her face towards the sky and asked for the goddess to answer her, to save her from this living nightmare. However, Edelgard had long since realized that her prayers were never going to be answered. She wondered if there even was a warrior of fire as Therese had once described to her in vivid detail. If the goddess did exist, why was she still there? Why hadn’t she been saved?

Edelgard sat in motionless silence, and she wondered vaguely if perhaps praying for her body to be swallowed by endless flames would attract the attention of the goddess. She had long since figured out that there was no salvation to be found in the topaz hues she and Therese had once enjoyed so. Maybe if she asked for an end to this hell she would be answered.

If she knew the fire magic that Therese had shown her on quiet evenings for years, Edelgard would have allowed it to consume her. It was better than being forced to live through this nightmare. She could have become her own goddess of fire, but no sparks rushed to her fingertips when she called for them. Instead, she was left with plentiful unshed tears, extinguishing her hopes of vibrant ashes before they could even ignite.

~~~~~

“Put your arm above the scanner.”

The instruction reached Edelgard’s ears as the device on the ground before her whirred to life. Purple light reflected across her pale features, and she stared at the floor blankly. It had been too long since she last saw sunlight, since she last saw a living creature aside from the cloaked mages, since she last went a night without crying. Her delayed reaction was a product of grief that threatened to spill over after far too much repression for her fragile shoulders to bear. She was still a child, and she didn’t think that she was deserving of such pain at such a young age. Why had her childhood been taken from her so suddenly? Why did it have to happen to her? Why did everyone else have to die?

“Didn’t you hear me?”

The harsh voice jumped Edelgard from her thoughts, and she followed the mage’s directions out of fear, unsure of what would happen if she denied the instruction but knowing it would be far from pleasant. She swallowed nervously as the light began to show a symbol, one that she had seen only in the books that Therese had once read to her when she was younger. At first, Edelgard couldn’t believe it, and her expression was slack with blurred confusion. She had thought this wasn’t possible, and the idea had seemed to be mere conjecture to her until that very moment as she stared at the sign she had once associated with beauty and fire.

“The Crest of Flames,” the mage whispered in morbid fascination. Edelgard could hear the smile in his voice without needing to look up, and it sickened her beyond comprehension. Her stomach clenched, threatening to make her sick openly, and the room spun around her no matter how still she stood. Was that what all of this was for? He and his numerous heartless allies had kidnapped her siblings, driven them to tortured madness, and performed countless inhumane experiments in the name of that symbol? It was all for the Crest of Flames?

The realization made her feel as if she was going to collapse. After all that time, she had been suffering in the name of the goddess? All that she had gone through had caused her once-powerful faith to melt away beneath the flames of rage, and now she was hearing that it was supposedly for the sake of some faraway being who never bothered to listen to her prayers? If it was happening for the goddess, did that mean that Edelgard’s pleas were left unanswered because Sothis agreed with her suffering?

Edelgard didn’t realize what was happening around her. She didn’t bother to acknowledge what those near her were doing as hot tears formed in her eyes and splashed against the stone ground beneath her feet. She tried to avoid giving those monsters the dignity of seeing her cry, but she couldn’t help it. They didn’t deserve to witness her weakness, but she couldn’t leash it any longer.

Did the goddess she had spent so long chasing want her to suffer? Were the tales that Therese wove in the gentle illumination of firelight all a lie? Was the crumbling of her faith planned from the start?

She didn’t know the answers, and she didn’t care. All she wanted to do was cry.

~~~~~

White.

Edelgard woke up to the sight of white fanned out beside her. She immediately shot up in shock, surprised to be above ground. Sunlight streamed in through her window, and she held her hand up to shield her eyes. It had only been a few days since she arrived back in the palace, and it was certainly taking some getting used to. She still cringed upon seeing overhead sunshine, and it made her dizzy enough to feel sickened if she didn’t prepare properly.

The white hair, however, was completely new. Edelgard practically threw herself out of bed and dashed over to the nearest mirror, examining her reflection in its entirety.

She hardly recognized herself.

Her eyes were sunken and exhausted, having lost their glow a long time ago. Her skin had grown unnaturally pale from lack of exposure to sunlight, the darkness seeming to have seeped into her bones. Her hair was white as snow, and it chilled her to the bone.

Edelgard had thought that her hair was lighter than usual, but she had figured that it was because it had been so long since her last excursion into the sunshine. This, however, was not as she suspected. There was no way that this was by natural causes. Was it the Crest of Flames? It had already taken so much from her, and yet, it still seemed intent on taking more until she was little more than an empty husk.

She sunk to her knees, her body acting without the instruction of her mind. Her hands pressed to her face as she began to sob, praying that when she pulled her palms away, she would see pale brown and not cloudy white.

~~~~~

Edelgard reached for a book and slowly opened it, staring at the pages before her blankly. She had been trying to catch up on her studies since arriving back above ground, but it was much harder than she thought. How could she be expected to simply slip back into the same routine she had always known after such trauma? Was there a way that life could be normal as it had been before?

Deep down, Edelgard knew the answer was negatory. There were ten smiling faces she would only ever see in paintings around the palace. There were ten people who had perished beneath the earth. There were ten siblings who were buried after tearful funerals who would never return to her.

Still, she was going to try. She had to reach out for some traces of sanity in the tempest that had become her life. That led her back to learning, trying to figure out more about the history of the continent and her country.

Edelgard turned the page and began to scowl.

A drawing depicting the goddess looked back at her, and suddenly, Edelgard wanted to be sick. If she had any less self-restraint, she would have ripped the page from the book and started tearing it into a thousand pieces. That wouldn’t bring back her siblings, wouldn’t reverse the past, but it was still something for her to do aside from grieve until she felt numb to every scrap of emotion she could grasp.

Instead, Edelgard stared at the picture with a glare. She refused to allow the goddess to earn any further tears from her. She had given enough to the figment of her imagination that was the woman bathed in fire, and it was time for Edelgard to utilize the energy she once spent on praying to rebuild herself after everything had fallen apart piece by piece into a scattered mess upon the floor.

Edelgard slammed the book shut and set it back down as a frustrated sigh left her lips. She had seen more than enough of the goddess, and she had to save her breath for herself now. There was no time for her to plead with a faraway woman with unhearing ears. Now, Edelgard had to breathe on her own, and she was determined to follow through with it no matter what stood in her way.

~~~~~

Flames crackled in the hearth as Edelgard passed by. She wasn’t sure who had started the fire, but it made her pause. She looked at a cushion stationed at the center of the room, her shoulders sagging as her expression fell into passive numbness.

Memories sparked from deep within of sitting in that very spot with Therese and watching the fire dance. She remembered the night Therese first cast a fire spell for her, and the words about the warrior bound in flames created a distant image in Edelgard’s mind. A faraway voice in the back of her head sang with the laughter of the siblings she hadn’t seen in so long, the siblings she would never see again.

Edelgard allowed the fire to reflect back upon her face, and she straightened out while correcting her expression to solemnity. The goddess didn’t matter anymore. It was all about Edelgard and her future now.

The next time Edelgard walked into the room of the hearth as it sang with ashes, she kept walking and didn’t stop.

~~~~~

“What do you want to be named?”

The armor stared at her, and Edelgard watched it with a neutral lavender gaze. The mask was white and red, and her features reflected in it gently. She examined the steel, something that had been constructed solely for her body.

It was part of the plan to change the world forever. However, anonymity was key in reaching that future, and so the armor was created to mask the true identity of its wearer. She would need a name to hide who she truly was, and the last step was to craft that title for her future usage.

Edelgard looked down at her hand. She recalled a time where she had summoned the symbol of the Crest of Flames to float just above her gloved palm. Fire was in her blood as much as she hated to admit it. However, she was going to reclaim it and create the world that the goddess had failed to. If Sothis wasn’t going to change this world, Edelgard would do it. She owed that much to those who had died in the name of the fire that ran through her veins.

One day, she would be the emperor known for leading the land into a new era without the Crests. In that way, she herself was a contradiction. Edelgard was among a small handful of people to possess multiple Crests, and yet, she fought to be free of them. Perhaps her name should personify that paradox.

“Flame Emperor.”

The title fell simply from her tongue, and it hung in the air heavily. She listened to the echo of her own voice reverberate mercilessly in her mind. From a first glance, it fit her perfectly, but anyone who thought to dig a little deeper would understand how much Edelgard wished this title didn’t fall upon her shoulders. She never asked for the Crest of Flames, and she never asked to be named as the future emperor when there were many others who deserved it more. Her siblings should have taken up the mantle, but instead, she was left in their shadows, anger thriving at her core in the name of events that changed her life for the worse and left her hollow.

“Of course, my lady.”


	2. Part Two: Academy

Garreg Mach Monastery was tall and imposing, something Edelgard could tell even from a distance of a few miles.

Hubert stood a few paces behind her as Edelgard pressed her gloved hand against a nearby tree trunk. The monastery could be seen in the distance, and it somehow seemed an even more impressive architectural feat than it had been when Edelgard saw it in countless paintings across the continent.

But this did nothing to calm her anger at the building’s mere existence.

Rage boiled in her stomach, and Edelgard had to force herself to keep from glaring at the imposing building. The monastery had been built to honor the goddess, but Edelgard could no longer find such fascinating after years of learning that the lady of fire would sooner turn her back on humanity than confront the monsters of her own making. She simply watched the building, almost as if she expected it to change into a beast before her very eyes to fit her thoughts of the supposed goddess who was meant to protect her from hardship.

In a way, it would transform in the future. Edelgard and Hubert had already put their plan into action, and they would not be backing down so close to evolution. The horizon was waiting for them, and Edelgard was not about to turn her back on the dawn of revolution when breaking sunlight was finally within her grasp.

“Let’s go,” Hubert said, snapping Edelgard out of her thoughts. He was watching her with the same defensive yet watchful eyes he always had, and the familiarity was more than comforting for Edelgard. Even with how many people she had seen die, Hubert was there by her side, and he always would be. She wasn’t alone as long as he stood by her side with his unflinching loyalty.

She nodded. “Of course.” The words felt unfamiliar to her, as if some phantom had used her lips to speak for but a moment. The only creature capable of such was the goddess though, and Edelgard had long since learned that Sothis wouldn’t bother giving her a second glance. There was no point in hoping any longer than she already had.

~~~~~

Edelgard glanced around at the others in the monastery. The students were meeting one another for the first time, and all she could do was stare. This was meant to be a jubilant day, but all she could think of was what was to come. How many of these teens would side with her when the world fell to ash? Who would she come to blows with at the crux of destiny? What was to happen when the betrayal finally saw the monastery’s gleaming, endless sunshine?

There was no guarantee that any of them were going to stay by her side. Edelgard doubted that anyone save for Hubert would have more faith for her and the world she longed to create than the existing system that thrived around them. She had accepted such long ago, and yet, she would be lying if she said that she wished to walk this path alone.

Edelgard did her best to swallow back her nerves. Now wasn’t the time to get shaky or nervous. There was too much riding on her victory at Garreg Mach, and she wasn’t about to jeopardize it when the world was watching her and waiting with held breath for her revolution.

~~~~~

It should have been a simple operation.

The bandits were meant to defeat Dimitri and Claude easily, leaving her to pave the way for a brighter dawn. Of course, nothing ever seemed to go as planned in her life. The burning fire in her veins should have been substantial proof of such. If existence went by the predetermined path, Edelgard would never have been named the house leader of the Black Eagles, left only as a princess who supported her older siblings from afar with a wide smile and lengthy tresses of beautiful tan.

The trio of students had approached a group of mercenaries at the request of Dimitri, and there were two of them in particular that stood out to Edelgard. The leader was a tall man with chiseled features, light brown hair, and a notable scar across his face. Edelgard recognized him easily as Jeralt, the famous Blade Breaker from times before she drew breath. He had disappeared years before Edelgard had graced the earth, and finding such a legendary figure brought her shock. Still, she shoved it aside and maintained her pleasant facade.

Then there was the young woman.

Her face was impossible to read, and her eyes were a beautiful deep teal color. Her hair matched her irises and fell around her features in a messy mane. She was tall and had quite the impressive figure, showing Edelgard immediately that she was not a woman to be trifled with. She seemed to be a few years older than Edelgard, though her expression was far wiser than anyone would have expected of someone her age.

Something about her left Edelgard infatuated, though she shelved her longing gaze behind the passive mask she had spent years perfecting. She had far more important things to worry about than the newcomer. Her plan was crumbling, and it would be best if she thought of the next move before falling into the emotionless gaze of a woman she had never met.

After the battle, Edelgard asked what her name was. There was something odd about this woman, and she felt attached already. For the first time in far too long, the fire within her blood burned with a foreign excitement.

“Byleth.”

_Byleth._

Edelgard immediately launched into a seemingly easy and innocent conversation with Dimitri and Claude as Byleth stood by and listened carefully. Edelgard couldn’t keep a light smile away from her face as the seconds crawled on. She didn’t know much about Byleth, but she prayed to hear more as soon as possible.

~~~~~

Byleth was going to be a professor.

Edelgard had been shocked to hear of such, but she accepted the truth without any hesitation. It would certainly give her more time to learn more about her. It was impossible to say which of the three houses Byleth would be supervising, but Edelgard found herself wishing for the Black Eagles, the home of her winged comrades, in a way she didn’t anticipate.

She watched Byleth from afar as she explored the monastery, speaking with the rest of the students in the monastery. Edelgard couldn’t keep her smile away just the same as before, and when nobody was watching, she embraced her curiosity with a tender gaze that hadn’t been used in years. She hadn’t smiled so gently since before she found herself beneath the palace of Enbarr alongside her siblings, and her features felt strange as soon as she painted such an expression upon herself. Even so, something about it felt oddly perfect, like all of the broken, jagged pieces Edelgard was made of had slotted back into place once again. The feeling of belonging was enough to convince Edelgard to watch Byleth from afar for as long as she could, and as soon as the older woman left her line of sight, Edelgard longed to rewind time to a point where she could stare silently once again.

~~~~~

Byleth walked into the classroom of the Black Eagles, and Edelgard’s heart swelled. By some lucky decision of fate, Byleth was teaching the Black Eagles, and Edelgard’s new strange wish was fulfilled. She hadn’t wanted something so much in a long time, and luck had been on her side for the first time in what felt like a decade.

The rest of the class engaged in nervous chatter with their new professor, but Edelgard only spoke up when she was prompted or otherwise felt that she should. She was too distracted with her peculiar joy to devote too much attention to the conversation. She didn’t know what this feeling was, but she loved it.

~~~~~

Byleth had the Crest of Flames, and suddenly, everything made sense.

Edelgard’s strange feelings towards her could easily be defined at long last. Byleth was revealed to have the Crest of Flames thanks to the power of Hanneman’s technology. Edelgard hated the idea of anything related to the goddess a strong majority of the time, but despite her dissatisfied reservations, there was something about Byleth that had drawn her in. It was as if a hand had taken firm hold on her wrist and was refusing to let go.

The hand surely belonged to Byleth. When Edelgard closed her eyes, she saw a face bearing stoic kindness in her mind. Byleth was quiet and solemn, only speaking when she truly had to, but Edelgard didn’t mind it in the slightest. In fact, it brought waves of relief crashing over her. Edelgard was more than alright with living in silence at times. Her mind raced most of the time, but Byleth was able to allow Edelgard to enjoy the quiet by stilling the tornado that thrived in Edelgard’s mind. Byleth seemed to be able to place a gentle, healing balm upon all of Edelgard’s shattered edges simply by being near her, and the princess liked it far more than she was willing to openly admit.

Edelgard had more important things to think about, and she was fully aware of such. Even so, she never stopped herself when she imagined the way the jewels in Byleth’s eyes glimmered in the Fódlan sun. Despite endless reminders from the small voice at the back of her mind that told her the future was waiting for her to act, Edelgard was able to find stolen moments of peace when Byleth was in her presence. She felt as if she was stealing fire from the goddess herself, and Edelgard loved watching the flames dance from a distance.

~~~~~

Byleth was incredible.

With each fight that passed by, Edelgard grew more and more curious, intrigued by this stranger who felt so perfect in seemingly no time at all. She found her gaze lingering longer on Byleth than it had any right to, as if her eyes didn’t want to tear away from the woman known as the Ashen Demon. She looked forward to receiving tutoring for any skill no matter how brief. She accepted each invitation to teatime that Byleth extended her way with gratitude and an elegant smile to mask how excited she was.

Weeks passed by, and Edelgard’s fascination only grew. She had always expected to hate someone else’s Crest of Flames just as much as she despised her own, but Byleth was different. She didn’t know how to define it, but something about Byleth was not as she expected, and it was incredible to her. No words would ever be able to properly explain why she cared about Byleth so much, but Edelgard didn’t try to find the sentences either. Instead, she merely allowed such a relief to exist, settling gently in her chest with all the warmth of the ashes Byleth had been named after.

~~~~~

Edelgard was no stranger to nightmares. In the years since the experimentation, she grew used to waking up multiple times in the middle of her worst nights, breathing heavily with sweat on her brow. Returning to slumber was impossible at times, but she had to try anyway. The Officers Academy was only pushing her further to try and roll over to go back to sleep, but it never seemed to work.

Edelgard knew how to cope with her nightmares on her own. Hubert was the only one ever there to listen to her woes, but he was far from being strong when it came to emotional connection. He was a perfect retainer, but he lacked the emotional intelligence needed to fully understand the depths of her trauma. Luckily, he was fully aware of such, and she was just the same.

It was one night near the start of the school year that Edelgard woke up to the sound of footsteps outside her room. Paranoia took root in her brain immediately, and she got to her feet, trembling madly. All traces of sleep talking disappeared as she attempted to get her shaking body under control. She managed to find a strong hold on her doorknob after what felt like ages of fidgeting, she turned it and went to investigate.

Byleth stood above her, and Edelgard thought she was going to jump out of her skin. She looked up at her professor, attempting to pull together some mask of dignity. Words left her lips, but she wasn’t sure exactly what they were until she heard them. “Profesor… What are you doing here?” she breathed, the words light and airy. Her lungs felt oddly empty all of a sudden.

“I heard something,” Byleth answered simply, the words just as blunt as every other phrase that left her lips. She watched Edelgard with inquisitive eyes, and the princess couldn’t help but squirm beneath that firm gaze.

“Oh… Perhaps I was talking in my sleep,” Edelgard murmured. She knew that it had to be true. After all, she didn’t even remember the last time she had suffered from a nightmare that didn’t include a few whispered words in her restless panic.

“Bad dreams?” Byleth questioned, raising an eyebrow and tilting her head slightly to the side. Something about those eyes made Edelgard feel as if she was going to fall apart. Every layer of her mask was being torn away and tossed to the side, useless before the solemn observation of her professor.

Edelgard swallowed dryly, unsure of if there was a way for her to escape. Part of her wanted to lie and get away as soon as possible, but muttering dishonestly under her breath wasn’t going to help her. She wasn’t going to be able to sleep until she got everything off her chest. Besides, this was Byleth. Surely she could trust the older woman with such private information.

“Ah… So you heard me then. Yes, it was a nightmare. I’ve had them since I was a child,” Edelgard explained. Angry tears started to rise in her eyes, but she did her best to push them back where they had come from. “Stupid, pointless dreams I can’t control… It’s terribly frustrating.”

That was an understatement. Frustrations would only earn her ire for a short period of time, but these dreams had been haunting Edelgard’s nightly slumbers for more than half of her life. There was most certainly a difference between minor aggravations and what she was suffering through.

“What are they about?” Byleth inquired kindly. Sympathy had seeped into her gaze, and Edelgard couldn’t tear her eyes away from such sweet irises. What could she do aside from confess everything? She had to speak about her suffering at some point, and Byleth was the only person she could imagine trusting with such at that point.

“Just… My childhood,” Edelgard answered. “A time before I had realized who I was destined to become.” This was only halfway true, as at the time, Edelgard hadn’t been fated for this path. She was meant to follow in the footsteps of those who were older, wiser, and would undoubtedly rule with grand smiles and passionate camaraderie. There was no realization about Edelgard’s future; it was thrust into her arms dripping crimson blood and burning with angry fire.

“You can trust me with anything,” Byleth assured Edelgard, reaching one hand out to touch the princess’ shoulder. Edelgard felt her tremors slowly draw to a close, using the firm yet delicate grasp of her teacher to ground herself from further panic.

“I had a feeling you’d say that. I suppose I could try… But only if you swear not to tell a soul,” Edelgard said slowly. Part of her was still crying with ferocity that she had to find a way to lie her way out of this, but the other area of her mind was stronger, saying that she needed this more than she was willing to admit.

Byleth proved herself to be far more perceptive than Edelgard would have anticipated for someone so stern. Under any circumstances, Edelgard would have known how to defend herself emotionally, but she crumbled under Byleth’s inquisitive eyes. The truth of her nightmares came out in a rough tangent as her heart screamed in her chest.

“I dream of… my older brother, paralyzed, helpless… my older sister crying for help that never came… the youngest babbling words beyond meaning. I see my family dying slowly, waiting in the darkest depths for a glimmer of light. I once had ten siblings, eight older and two younger. Such a large family, and yet I became the heir to the throne. Do you know why? Every last one of them died. I was the only one left who could inherit the throne.” Edelgard didn’t realize all that she had said until the words had been released, resting in the air heavily, and there was no longer a way for her to backpedal and pull them back through her lips.

She anticipated the pity in Byleth’s eyes, but there was something deeper within those teal irises. Sympathy, Edelgard dully realized. She appreciated it far more than she could have ever expected, and her mouth went dry as soon as she realized the weight of her actions.

“That’s awful…” was all Byleth could bring herself to say. Her gentle grasp tightened on Edelgard’s shoulder. An odd sensation of relief swelled in her, and she found her rapid heartbeat slowing to a regular pace at last.

Her trembling hands fell still as she continued to with Byleth. “Things kept getting worse. The darkness kept getting darker. In the end, I was the only one who survived. The nightmares are a reminder… to never forget. To never allow such terrible things to happen again,” Edelgard murmured.

“Never again,” Byleth echoed, though her voice was far more certain and assertive than Edelgard’s had been. When Edelgard looked up to meet Byleth’s eyes, she was shocked by the unflinching determination that had risen within the familiar pools of swirling turquoise. One of her hands instinctively rose to touch the place where Byleth’s palm made contact with her shoulder, and her fingers rested against the older woman’s knuckles.

“Even now, I’m the only one who can carry the weight of the Adrestian Empire. The future of the Empire… of everything… depends on me,” Edelgard whispered. She sounded so weak, and she realized such as soon as she finished the sentence. The instinct to pull away gnawed at her insides, and she let her hand drop from where it had been resting against Byleth’s knuckles.

“I shared more than I intended to. I suppose there’s something in the air tonight. I’ve never told anyone about my past before. Please… Forget I said anything. Sleep well, my teacher.” Edelgard retreated back into her room, and her palm pressed against her door as she went to close it, but Byleth lingered for a moment. The rest of the conversation was a blur, and Edelgard could barely remember it in her exhausted, horrified daze.

When Byleth finally left, it was only after she was sure that Edelgard would be alright. Edelgard waved farewell to her professor before slowly pulling the door to her room shut with a light sigh. She shuffled over to her bed and pressed her cheek against the pillow. Sleep claimed her far faster than she anticipated, and much to her surprise, she didn’t wake up again that night. Somehow, the mercenary’s actions had been able to hold off the dam of trauma and terror that thrived behind Edelgard’s refined mask. Nobody had ever been able to do that before.

That night, when Edelgard dreamed, it was of a woman bathed in fire, but rather than the goddess, she only saw the Ashen Demon.

~~~~~

Byleth’s eyes the next day in class were kind and gentle. When she called Edelgard aside for special instruction, she said something that caught Edelgard by surprise.

“Are you okay?”

Edelgard’s eyes went wide until she was fully hit by the events of the night before. She hadn’t been able to stop thinking about them, but she was hoping that Byleth had forgotten. She should have known that it wouldn’t be that easy.

“Yes,” Edelgard responded, nodding as firmly as she possibly could. She wasn’t sure if pressing Byleth further on the subject would be a better idea than simply leaving it be, but she thought on it for too long.

“I’m glad,” Byleth told her, either not noticing Edelgard’s hesitation or choosing to ignore it. She seemed to sense that Edelgard wasn’t in the mood to talk, so she left it be and moved onto something else. This time, Byleth’s words were about axe instruction. Edelgard was thankful for the distraction, and she couldn’t keep away the smile that formed in the following seconds off her face.

Even after she had gone back to her regular duties, Edelgard couldn’t stop thinking about Byleth’s actions. Her cheeks went warm with pink blush when she recalled what happened, and she was thankful that none of the other Black Eagles noticed.

She didn’t have any nightmares when the sun finally set on the horizon. Edelgard’s mind was too busy dancing with the idea of a powerful mercenary and all that she had already done to change the princess’ life.

~~~~~

Byleth’s actions were not enough to keep Edelgard’s nightmares at bay forever though. It was another night a few months later that Edelgard found herself sneaking away from her room to roam the monastery. The night air stung at her skin, biting with the humid warmth of summer gales. Still, she welcomed the feeling of discomfort. It gave her something to focus on rather than the visions of the bodies that had plagued her mind’s terrors.

Footfall reached Edelgard’s years, and she looked up to see Byleth approaching her once again. Edelgard’s hand subconsciously clenched into a fist, and her mouth went dry. Part of her thought that she should continue on with keeping her distance, but then she recalled how incredible Byleth had made her feel after their last few conversations. The prospect of returning to sleep after so many hellish nightmares was too comforting to pass up on, and she found herself speaking into the hot midnight.

“Ah, it’s you. Out late again, I see. What brings you here?” Edelgard questioned, strolling carefully over to Byleth. She prayed that her professor wouldn’t see the obsidian stains that tore mercilessly at the skin below her eyes.

However, Byleth was too observant to miss something so blatant. “Trouble sleeping?” she asked, her tone a perfect blend of concerned and conversational.

Edelgard felt a weary smile tug at the corners of her lips. “Is it that obvious? I despise being cooped up when sleep evades me. I just have to get some fresh air.” She wasn’t sure where all of this energy had come from, but once she started talking, it seemed impossible to stop.

“I couldn’t sleep either,” Byleth admitted, stepping closer to Edelgard. There was an easiness to her actions, and it acted as a calming balm across Edelgard’s rattling insides.

The princess suddenly felt oddly flushed when she realized how close Byleth was to her, but she hid her nerves by looking downwards. “So I see. Still, it’s ill-advised to stay up so late,” Edelgard said, praying that Byleth wouldn’t probe her for further information.

Edelgard managed to get the heat in her cheeks under control, and she looked up to Byleth. Once again, her lips seemed to move on their own. The words tumbled freely, and Edelgard found herself bringing up their last meeting. She wasn’t sure what possessed her to think it was a good idea, but it happened regardless. Everything came out in a surprisingly dignified rant before she could stop herself.

“I should get some sleep too, but… Have you ever felt a sort of longing for the outdoors? I have. There are times I long for the warmth of the sun, for a sweet breeze on my face…” Edelgard turned her cheeks to the moonlit sky, praying for the break of dawn she knew wouldn’t come to spread natural heat across her features. “Do you remember what I told you the other night? About… About my past? None of my siblings had a chance to lead the sort of life they deserved. An ordinary life.”

Byleth confirmed that she remembered, and Edelgard just started talking again. “My siblings and I were… We were imprisoned underground, beneath the palace. The objective was to endow our bodies with the power of a Major Crest. I have always possessed the Crest of Seiros, inherited through the Hresvelg bloodline. But it was only a Minor Crest, and most of my siblings bore no Crest at all. In order to create a peerless emperor to rule Fódlan, they violated our bodies by cutting open our very flesh. Now here I stand, the fruit of that endeavor: Edelgard von Hresvelg! But that came at too high a price... The others were sacrificed. Ours weren't the only lives devastated by that terrible process. Innocents died as well, without even knowing what they were dying for. And there you have it, the truth of the Hresvelg's Empire.”

Edelgard didn’t realize everything she had been saying in full until she met Byleth’s eyes once again. “It’s unbelievable,” her professor said, empathy filling her gaze.

Edelgard swallowed back her nerves and nodded. “It is… I know how it all sounds. But when you see my true strength, you will know I speak the truth. I have kept it hidden all this time, but… I will reveal to you the power of my second Crest.”

When Edelgard mentioned her second Crest, she turned her palm upwards and summoned the forbidden power that she longed to claw herself free of each time she opened her eyes. The Crest of Flames appeared above her hand, and she spoke once again. “It is the same as yours… The Crest of Flames. When it manifested for me, I swore a silent oath. For the sake of my family and for all the poor souls whose lives were traded for my existence… For their sake, I will build a world where such meaningless sacrifice is never again sanctioned. As emperor, I will change the world. I swear it.”

Byleth looked at her with a strange determination in her tired eyes. Edelgard wasn’t sure what it meant, but there was an oddly passionate fire swirling in those teal irises she had come to find so comforting. “I’ll do what I can to help you change things,” Byleth told her firmly.

Edelgard let her hand drop to her side, and her eyes went wide with shock before she managed to compose herself. “Thank you, Professor,” Edelgard said, managing to hold back the floodgates of every other trauma that dared to spill free from her lips. She looked to the starry sky for an excuse to gaze upon anything aside from that lovely face. “It’s getting late. We should both try and get some rest.”

Byleth seemed to realize that Edelgard was finished talking, and she didn’t bother pushing it, instead nodding and taking a step away. “Goodnight, Edelgard,” she told her student before walking back to her room, leaving Edelgard alone in the humid night air.

Edelgard watched as Byleth left before letting out a sigh and looking downwards. Byleth didn’t know what promising to follow her entailed. She would find out soon enough. It was far too late for Edelgard to pull away from her plan to change the world, and no matter how much she wanted Byleth to stay with her, there was simply no guarantee of such. All she could do was fight for the future she wanted while praying that Byleth agreed with her line of reasoning.

Pray?

The idea felt foreign to Edelgard, and she looked down to her gloved hand with a frown. She hadn’t prayed since she was still living beneath the palace as a subject of the twisted experimentation. She hadn’t given the goddess a positive thought in ages, so where was this coming from?

Perhaps it had to do with Byleth. After all, Edelgard’s professor had the same Crest as the goddess, and in Edelgard’s eyes, Byleth was a far better goddess than Sothis ever could hope to be. Maybe she was starting to believe in her own goddess this time, but instead of a woman with a million loyal followers who loved to ignore those who needed her, Edelgard’s goddess was a demon with power carved from ash with sympathetic eyes that calmed her every anxiety.

Edelgard looked down and swallowed once again. She could think of such more when the sun rose. Classes were happening the next day whether she liked it or not, and she couldn’t stay up for much longer if she hoped to do well. She started back to her dorm, but once the seed of doubt regarding the goddess was planted, she couldn’t figure out how to escape it. Despite her attempts to smother the growing bud, she was left thinking of Byleth as the modern incarnation of Sothis in a dizzying circle that was impossible to get away from.

~~~~~

Weeks passed by, and Edelgard only stared at Byleth with deeper admiration than ever before. She smiled more, and life seemed so much easier than it ever had been. Edelgard was able to find peace and joy in an existence that had damned her from the start, and it was oddly exhilarating to have the power of enjoying the life that she had spent so long despising.

The longer time crawled on, the more Edelgard began to enjoy her time at the academy. She had been unsure of it in the start, but with Byleth and the rest of the Black Eagles there, everything was starting to look up. Maybe there was salvation from her endless suffering after all.

~~~~~

Mission after mission ended successfully, and Edelgard felt on top of the world. She smiled down on everything that happened before slinking into the shadows, performing her duties as the Flame Emperor with an unexpected fervor. Her smile was hidden behind the mask of crimson and cream, but it was present nonetheless.

Looking into her mask reminded her of what was to come, and she feared Byleth’s departure someday in the future. However, until that time came, she was going to do what she could to enjoy the life she was living in that moment. She was thriving at long last, and she was going to try and prevent fears of the future from getting in her way of the happiness that was finally within her grasp after so many years.

~~~~~

Byleth began teaching Edelgard how to use magic, and she found herself nurturing flames in the quiet of the night long after everyone had gone to sleep. She never could have imagined herself casting fire magic when she was a little girl, and yet, there she was.

Edelgard watched the fire dance in her palm, remembering the way Therese had smiled as she told stories of the goddess. Edelgard had longed to be like her older sister, and she was finally being given that chance. She was old enough to learn how to use magic, and she was actually rather good at it.

She felt a tear slip down her cheek as she remembered all the lives that were traded for her own. Edelgard took in a shaky breath before letting it out and continuing to stare at the flickering flames in front of her. She hoped that her siblings were proud of her. She was sure that Therese would love to hear how her baby sister had learned how to use the fire magic that she had spent so many years admiring. Even if Edelgard had wanted to pull away from her plans, she had come too far, and she could only hope that the souls of her siblings didn’t come to despise her for what she was going to be doing soon.

Still, she was able to ignore that for a short while, concentrating only on the fire in her hand. Everything was going to be alright, and even if her life fell apart one day, she could find solace in the perfection of the moment. The Black Eagles and Byleth cared about her, and she was finally learning how to use the fire magic that she had treasured so much growing up. Soon enough, her melancholy would end, and she would be able to enjoy her life once again, this time with the power of swirling ashes by her side.

~~~~~

Byleth could use fire magic too.

Edelgard didn’t realize it until she began searching the monastery to find her professor one day. She noticed how Byleth was speaking with Hanneman, casting a small flare of a spell with one hand. All Edelgard could do was stare, remembering the way that the goddess was said to be able to bring fire to places where it never existed before. Many people had that power thanks to magic, but with Byleth, it felt like something special.

Edelgard found herself watching Byleth from afar whenever her professor used fire magic, and a smile always appeared on her face as she imagined the goddess reflected through those beautiful eyes. Byleth was called the Ashen Demon, and she could summon flames to her every beck and call. Perhaps she was the reincarnation of the goddess after all. Edelgard couldn’t ignore this theory any longer, and her gaze always drifted to Byleth in the heat of battle when she heard the familiar cry that came with the casting of magic.

Perhaps the goddess wasn’t as unhearing as she had been led to believe.

~~~~~

Edelgard attended a ceremony in the cathedral.

She wasn’t sure what possessed her to think it was a good idea to go to the place in the monastery where religion was most prominent, but she did it anyway. Perhaps it was because Byleth had said she was going to be there. What else was she meant to do? Edelgard wanted to spend more time with her professor to make up for everything crashing and burning when the inevitable change took place a short while off.

Still, she enjoyed herself a lot more than she expected to. Edelgard couldn’t help but grin to herself as she walked away from the cathedral. The smile lingered on her face for hours afterwards, and when others asked her why she was so chipper, she simply explained that she had undergone a revelation, never elaborating further. All details were left up to the imaginations of those who asked her, but it was crystal clear to Edelgard herself.

Edelgard clasped her hands together when she got back to her room, staring at the way her fingers formed the traditional Seiros prayer position as she thought of her professor and the flames she brought. If the goddess was anything like Byleth, maybe there was hope out there after all.

~~~~~

Hope fell apart.

News of Jeralt’s death reached Edelgard, and her ears were immediately filled with an angry sensation of buzzing cotton. It wasn’t supposed to be this way. He wasn’t supposed to die. Those damn Agarthans had acted on their own, and it had gotten someone close to Byleth killed. This wasn’t part of the plan.

Edelgard felt as if she was to blame for it. She couldn’t bring herself to face Byleth for long, believing that somehow this was all her fault. She should have seen this coming. She should have done something. Because of her inaction, Jeralt was dead, and nothing could ever change that.

Even if she distanced herself, Edelgard always found herself coming right back. She knew that she didn’t deserve it, but she walked right back to Byleth’s side each and every day, placing a gentle hand between her professor’s shoulders as she grieved. Edelgard tried to help Byleth move on, saying that action was what they needed in that moment, but her actions were selfish. She couldn’t stand to watch Byleth fall apart because of weight that existed on her shoulders. Edelgard shouldn’t have gone back, but she couldn’t stay away.

After comforting Byleth on the worst of days, Edelgard would retreat to her room and press her hands to her eyes until she saw stars. She didn’t deserve Byleth no matter how she looked at it. Byleth deserved better than this, than her, but repeating such didn’t keep her from going back to her teacher’s side, drawn in by the gravity of her teacher’s perfect, loving presence.

~~~~~

Byleth wanted revenge, and Edelgard couldn’t blame her. After all of the people she had seen die beneath the palace of Adrestia, she was left burning with a desire for bloodshed against those who had dared to hurt her family. Even stoic, solemn Byleth was not above this way of thinking, and she was merciless as they chased the Agarthans through the woods near the monastery.

Edelgard didn’t realize how blindsided Byleth had been until Solon cast a spell that made Byleth disappear. She watched the spot where Byleth had been standing last, and words left her lips about how her professor would not fall there. Byleth was too strong to give in to such petty tactics, and she was still sure of such.

Even so, she couldn’t help the grief that swelled in her chest. What if Byleth really was gone? How was she supposed to manage something like the spell Solon had brought? Edelgard knew how strong Solon was, and she didn’t know if the Ashen Demon would be able to escape. The idea of Byleth dying terrified her, and it consumed her every thought before she could mount a desperate defense. Byleth had actually made her feel comfortable and happy in her own skin after years of pure agonizing suffering. She didn’t want to lose Byleth out of nowhere. It was all so sudden. What if Edelgard was just in denial and Byleth really was gone?

Edelgard feared that saying it out loud that Byleth was dead would make it real. Perhaps that was why she refused to admit that something like that could happen. Then again, denial hadn’t helped her when she saw ten young souls perish beneath the palace. It couldn’t save her no matter how much she longed for her blatant lies to take her in their warm embrace, offering the illusion that everything was fine even as the world crumbled with her at its center.

~~~~~

Byleth survived.

When Byleth came back, she had green hair. Green was often said to be the color of the goddess. When she stood there, at the center of the battlefield, with the Sword of the Creator practically vibrating with activity at her side, she certainly seemed like a goddess.

When Edelgard shut her eyes, even for just a moment to blink, she saw flames at Byleth’s feet. Her professor was called the Ashen Demon for a reason, and Edelgard certainly saw the fire in her eyes in that moment. It was impossible to ignore, and Edelgard found it nothing short of captivating. She couldn’t stop staring even when the fight began anew around them. Her gaze kept drifting, and she felt herself slipping.

Byleth could use the Sword of the Creator, and Rhea seemed to believe the blade was somehow connected to the goddess. Was it possible that Byleth was the goddess in some way? It seemed nothing short of impossible, but Edelgard couldn’t help thinking. The thought had crossed her mind a few times, but it was starting to become more realistic with each passing day. If the goddess did exist, surely she looked as Byleth did. Green hair and flames made it seem all too obvious, and the vision lingered in her mind long after the fight drew to a close, even passing over into her wandering dreams the following night.

If Byleth was somehow related to the goddess, what did that mean for Edelgard? She certainly believed in her professor, so did that mean her faith in the religion of Seiros had been renewed? It was impossible to assess so soon, but that night, she tossed and turned with the idea of following in the shadow of a woman carved from flames, remembering how much she had changed since Byleth had entered her life.

~~~~~

Edelgard agreed again the next time that Byleth wanted to go to the cathedral for singing lessons. The idea of praising the religion didn’t seem so dreadful all of a sudden, and Edelgard didn’t need to be a genius like Linhardt to know that it was because of Byleth. There was nothing else that could inspire such a sudden change in her, but it wasn’t as if she was complaining in the slightest.

The giddy feeling in Edelgard’s stomach only returned with each encounter she had with Byleth. Rather than suffering from nightmares of a living hell, she enjoyed dreams of Byleth as her goddess, and Edelgard was relieved to be able to sleep through the night for a consecutive week.

~~~~~

Edelgard stood in the entrance hall of the Officers Academy, trying not to think of what she had to do next. The world spun around her as she remembered that the time had come. She was set to be returning to the Empire to pave her way to the future. She was going to be ascending from princess to emperor.

When Byleth entered her field of vision, Edelgard looked up, trying to compose herself despite the screeching of her mind. “Professor, will you join me? There’s something I must do. It will take a few days, but I promise we’ll be back in time for the ceremony at the Holy Tomb,” she explained. Despite how customary lies and falsities had come to be in her life over time, the words felt foreign and wrong on her lips.

“Where are we going?” Byleth questioned. The collective language told Edelgard already that Byleth wanted to join her, and her heart swelled with relief and joy while her stomach knotted in anxiety and fear.

“It’s meant to be a secret, but… I’m going to Enbarr, the Imperial Capital. There is something I must do there,” Edelgard replied. That was the short version, and she didn’t know if she wanted to explain the full truth before she had to. Byleth deserved to live in her blissful ignorance for just a while longer, because the peace was not destined to last.

Byleth nodded her agreement, and Edelgard smiled tightly in an attempt to seem more relaxed than she was. If Byleth noticed her stress, she chose to ignore it, and Edelgard thanked her professor for her act of mercy. As the two moved to the entrance of the monastery to depart, Edelgard wondered if this would be the last private moment she was allowed to share with her professor before everything crumbled.

~~~~~

Edelgard’s body moved without her permission after she and Byleth arrived in Enbarr. She made her way to the throne room quickly, wondering how the time had flown by in such a way that she found herself there. Edelgard took a deep breath when Byleth wasn’t looking and walked inside, seeing her father collapsed against the throne, pale with sickness and hunched as he released strained coughs.

When she spoke, Edelgard felt as if she was being suffocated, and the tension in her chest froze her on the spot as soon as she stopped walking. “Father, forgive me for asking this of you. I know how much pain you’re in and how the burden of the throne weighs heavily on you. So--”

Ionius let out another cough, and one weak, frail hand rose to cover his mouth as he spoke. “There is no need to apologize, Edelgard. You must know that I do not have much time left in this world. The time has come.” He coughed once again, and Edelgard feared that she saw crimson blood fall into his palm when he did.

Edelgard had never been given the chance to get to know her father well. He was always busy when she was younger, and after she escaped from the clutches of the Agarthans, all she wanted to do was lock herself away from the world. Her ideals had further driven a wedge between them, but they still understood each other on a business level. Edelgard had to take the throne since his hourglass was running out. There was no other option.

“Thank you, Father. Now, to complete the Imperial succession, you must relinquish your crown here in the throne room. The archbishop of the Church of Seiros would normally act as witness, but my professor will fill that role instead,” Edelgard said. The words still felt strange when she spoke them no matter how many times she had rehearsed them. She had known this time was coming, but it was different to know the future than to actually experience it. As a child, she never thought this day would have to come, and yet, there it was. She couldn’t run away. Fleeing was no longer an option when the future was stretched out before her.

She was alright with having Byleth act as her witness for the coronation because of what she had come to believe her professor represented. After all, Rhea’s presence within the church was second only to the goddess herself, and Byleth most certainly fit that description as far as Edelgard was concerned. She couldn’t imagine the title belonging to anyone else.

Ionius raised one hand weakly, and Edelgard realized that he had deliberately chosen the one he hadn’t been using to cover his coughs. She saw the stain of blood against his clothes, and she figured that he had likely wiped away the scarlet liquid hastily to keep her from noticing, but such was too late. “Edelgard…” her father choked out, pale enough to seem dead. It seemed she had barely arrived in time for the coronation before his life gave out from beneath his feet.

Edelgard fell to her knees before Ionius, taking in a deep breath before speaking. “From this day forward, the weight of the Empire’s future shall rest upon my shoulders. All that I do will be for the benefit of the people of Fódlan.” Her eyes swept shut, and she recognized silently just how true her words were. She was starting a war soon for the good of the people, but it was far too late for her to be caught up in her own regrets. She was helping people in the long run, something she reminded herself of insistently when she thought of how disappointed Byleth was bound to be when she discovered the truth of Edelgard’s intentions. The princess licked her lips, a final act of nervous anxiety before she turned into a woman destined to stand at the apex of the world, the place where past and future collided in an explosion of violent flame.

Ionius slowly rose to his feet, the crown in his frail grasp. He placed it upon his daughter’s head, and she could already feel the weight that came with its presence only a few seconds later. She didn’t allow this uncertainty to show on her face though, and her father continued speaking. She focused on his voice rather than her racing thoughts, clinging to the anchor at the center of the hurricane. “Edelgard von Hresvelg, the crown is yours. By the covenant between the red blood and the white sword, and by the double-headed eagle upon your head, I hereby pronounce you the new emperor. Are you prepared to take those responsibilities as your own?” he questioned.

The following words had been rehearsed in Edelgard’s mind more times than she could define, and they slipped from her lips easily. “In accordance with the ancient covenant, and in keeping with the Hresvelg legacy… I swear that upon this throne, I shall use my reign to lead Fódlan to a new dawn and achieve peace for all.”

Edelgard got to her feet as Ionius limped back to his throne. Edelgard could feel Byleth’s eyes on her, but she didn’t say a word as her father went on. “The Imperial succession is complete.” His words were interrupted when a powerful cough wracked his body. “My daughter, I regret that I could not do more for you. When you were stolen away to the Kingdom, when the prime minister did those horrible things, I could only watch in horror.”

Edelgard was admittedly caught by surprise at this confession of weakness. She stole a brief glance to Byleth, whose eyes were full of compassion as well. Edelgard swallowed back her nerves before answering. “I… I understand, Father. In those dark times, your eyes and your fists were my salvation. Within your eyes, I saw true care. And upon your fists clenched tight with indignity, I saw the blood that dripped and fell. Even as I bled, I felt that you, too, must also be bleeding,” she remarked. Her father had not been able to do much to ease her pain, but he had at least made an attempt to pull her free. He was the only family she could hold to in the aftermath of the experimentation, and Edelgard felt her heart pang with the reminder that she should have gotten to know him better before he grew so sick.

Her thoughts were interrupted when footsteps rolled noisily along the marble floor. Edelgard turned to see Duke Ludwig von Aegir stumbling into the room, and her features naturally settled into a scowl. “Your Majesty! You must not leave your sleeping chambers in your condition!” he sputtered. Ludwig seemed to notice that Edelgard was there, though the newly-crowned emperor suspected that he was aware of her presence all along. He simply couldn’t stand to look her in the eye after all that he had forced upon her. He was responsible for the experimentation, pressing the twisted mages far enough for temptation to run its course. Edelgard had to fight to keep from glaring at him immediately when he continued to speak, this time addressing her. “Ah, Edelgard. I did not expect to find Your Highness here.”

Edelgard chose to gloss over his deliberate ignorance as an easy smile appeared on her face, a sickeningly sweet grin in clear betrayal of the malice that burned in her eyes. “Prime Minister, you have misspoken. I am no longer ‘Your Highness’, but rather… ‘Your Majesty’,” she told him, relishing every single word. As petty as it was, she felt as if she was finally able to act against him after all he had done.

“I-Impossible!” Ludwig cried out, his eyes bulging out of his head. She enjoyed the shock on his face and the way he fumbled for words under her intense gaze. He looked as if he was falling apart at the seams, and she hadn’t ever enjoyed seeing someone suffer more than she did in that moment.

Ionius nodded slowly from his place on the throne. “It is true. Edelgard is the new emperor of the Adrestian Empire. We will summon the officials and prepare an ordinance at once. And you, Prime Minister--”

Edelgard held up one hand to silence him before speaking. “Are dismissed. It will be some time before you are allowed to make contact with the outside world again,” she told him. The sweet smile was still on her face, threatening him to make a fuss over his punishment with the promise of further consequences if he tried.

Ludwig wasn’t able to form complete sentences for a moment afterwards, and the color drained from his face. Once he was finally able to compose himself, he sighed heavily. “Understood, Your Majesty,” he said softly. He looked as if he was going to be sick, and Edelgard didn’t regret enjoying how crestfallen he looked.

“Edelgard… My dear El, I leave the fate of Fódlan in your capable hands,” Ionius told her with a sad smile. The light from his eyes was beginning to fade, and a final cough burst free from his mouth. Just as before, it was accompanied with blood, and when he shut his eyes a few moments later, they never opened again.

~~~~~

Edelgard managed to compose herself on the way back to the monastery with the help of Byleth. After all, her professor had lost her father a short while beforehand, so if anyone was going to understand her pain, it would be Byleth. Edelgard never shed a tear, masking her weakness behind a mask of regal grace. After all, she was the emperor, and she couldn’t afford to show cracks in her armor so soon.

As they arrived back at the monastery, Edelgard spoke to Byleth. “Thank you for staying by my side, Professor. Now that I’m the emperor, it’s time to grasp my destiny. After the ceremony at the Holy Tomb, I must return to Enbarr.” She swallowed dryly before the next set of words came out. “This may be the last we see of each other.”

The weight of Edelgard’s words hung in the air for a moment before the emperor coughed. Tears were starting to form at the corners of her eyes, and she refused to break her promise about not crying so soon. “We are out of time, my teacher. Everyone is waiting for us. We must go.”

Edelgard walked away before she had the chance to receive an answer. She had spent so long enjoying her time at the monastery, and when the time came to let go, she wanted nothing more than to hold tight to the past. However, the future cared little for her feelings. The path ahead didn’t consider how much Edelgard wished she had gotten the chance to know her father more in the aftermath of her hellish experiences beneath Enbarr. The destiny awaiting her paid no heed to how much Edelgard yearned for a childhood that would never come to pass. The fate she had chosen was never going to acknowledge how much she longed to get lost in eyes of bright mint green and swirling cinders.

When she started to cry, Edelgard didn’t bother to wipe the tears. She didn’t know how long she laid there, stretched on her bed with her eyes growing drier by the second, but when she woke up, her cheeks were red and her face was puffy from sobbing the evening before.

~~~~~

Before the mission in the Holy Tomb, Edelgard hesitated. She looked into the reflection that stared back at her in the mask. Even if she was starting to believe in Sothis, an inkling of faith wasn’t enough to reverse all the work she had already done. The church needed to be toppled. It stood for a corrupt, sick, twisted institution, and she couldn’t allow something of that nature to survive. Too many had suffered for her to back down now.

This was the first time she would see Byleth as her enemy on the battlefield, and if her fears were correct, it would be far from the last. Edelgard hadn’t realized her previous encounter with the professor would be her last on friendly terms, and she regretted not saying anything, but there was nothing she could do about it. After all, the future was waiting.

~~~~~

Rhea’s eyes were made of fire in that moment, and Byleth was caught between two worlds. For the first time since Byleth’s transformation, Edelgard didn’t feel comfort at the idea of flames licking at her skin, and the concept made her blood seem to boil in an attempt to escape her body.

Byleth chose her.

The decision was silent, and Byleth walked over to where Edelgard was standing. The shock that appeared on Edelgard’s face was instant, and relief flooded her stomach. Her eyes went wide, and she looked to Byleth, hardly believing that this was real. She had imagined events playing out this way in her grandest of daydreams, but when faced with reality, there was nothing for to say.

Rhea’s anger was immediate. The scream that pierced the small yet grand room made Edelgard’s ears whistle, and the noise echoed in her mind for hours afterwards. Even so, she couldn’t be upset.

Byleth had chosen her.

~~~~

Edelgard smiled at Byleth from afar in the makeshift fortress that they had taken up residence in. The rest of the Black Eagles had come with her, and the area was practically alive with constant activity. All those who had grown close to her had sworn their allegiance. There were far more people willing to fight against the continent itself than she had anticipated, and it left her feeling oddly full with butterflies in her stomach.

Edelgard still stared at Byleth for longer than the rest.

~~~~~

“Can we talk?”

Edelgard looked up when she heard a voice from above her makeshift desk within the rebellion’s hideout. She saw Byleth towering over her and realized that she had been so lost in thought over the paperwork that waited before her to notice that she was no longer alone.

Edelgard nodded immediately, pushing her chair away from the desk in a smooth sliding motion. She rose to her feet and gestured for Byleth to follow her, traveling away from the main area where the rest of the army was located. The corner Edelgard selected was secluded compared to the other segments of the underground base, and it offered a decent enough amount of privacy. Still, Edelgard couldn’t help but feel exposed given the cramped quarters the Empire had been forced to find a home in. Then again, it was hard to be picky when she was about to start waging a war with no real place to take her first step of claiming a foothold.

“What is it?” Edelgard questioned once they were as alone as they were going to get. The corner felt oddly warm to her all of a sudden, and she wondered if it was because Byleth was standing in front of her, protecting her from the rest of the room.

“I just wanted to talk about all of this,” Byleth replied with a jerky, loose shrug. “We can’t go back now.”

If that wasn’t the truth, Edelgard didn’t know what was. She nodded slowly. “That’s true,” she murmured. She didn’t know what else to say, and she prayed that Byleth knew of a way to continue the conversation in her stead.

Luckily for Edelgard, she did. “I trust your judgement,” Byleth said next. “You wouldn’t have done this without a good reason, and after what you told me about… I believe it’s the best move.”

A sudden smile appeared on Edelgard’s lips, and it felt so much more genuine than any other expression she had ever used in her life. Something about Byleth really did bring out the best in her. “Thank you,” she whispered breathlessly. She peered over Byleth’s shoulder carefully, examining the small space that she and her forces had carved. When faced with a hostile world, this tiny corner was all they could manage. When she spoke, Edelgard was sure Byleth could understand exactly what she meant. “It’s… It’s not a nice place to start our revolution, but… I believe that toppling the oppressive system the church has created will save more lives in the long run. Too many people have suffered under the Crest-based system of the past, and I’m tired of allowing people to die in the name of a corrupt institution.”

“You’ve suffered under it,” Byleth told her bluntly. “You’re more than justified to want to bring it all down.”

Edelgard couldn’t help but be surprised by Byleth’s honest words. She knew that Byleth had a habit of speaking frankly when she did break her regular silence and open her mouth, but it still caught her by surprise. Even after knowing the reality of the situation was that Byleth was with her, it was taking an oddly long time to sink in fully. “Yes… I have,” Edelgard murmured, unable to deny the truth that was staring her in the face. If not for her siblings, she wouldn’t have started this in the first place. If not for the image of a woman bathed in fire, she wouldn’t have lost faith in the church’s supposed goodwill.

If not for Byleth, she might have lost her heart and humanity along the way.

“I understand it’s hard,” Byleth continued, placing a hand on Edelgard’s shoulder. It was warm and comforting, reminding Edelgard of the reality she found herself facing and acting as an anchor made from cinders. “But you don’t have to deal with this alone. You have all of us. We wouldn’t have come with you if we didn’t believe that you were making the right decision. We chose this path. It wasn’t out of obligation or anything of the sort. All of us decided to follow you because we thought your ideals would lead us to a brighter tomorrow. This burden isn’t yours alone to bear.”

The speech caught Edelgard off guard once more, and for a moment, all she could do was blink in surprise. Her hand rose to cover Byleth’s calloused knuckles, and she couldn’t help but smile after gathering her bearings fully. “Thank you,” Edelgard said softly. She found her grip tightening carefully around Byleth’s fingers. The life that she felt through that single point of contact was enough to make her feel on top of the world, and she wondered if there was anything that could knock her down from the pedestal of fiery grace that had formed beneath her feet in the blink of an eye.

“We should prepare for the fight,” Byleth told her next, snapping Edelgard out of her dreamlike trance. “This isn’t going to be easy, but we can handle it. I’ll do what I can to get everyone else ready. Don’t push yourself too hard.”

As Byleth walked away, Edelgard realized that the statement at the end was a command rather than a request. It was one of Byleth’s ways of showing she cared, it seemed. Edelgard continued to grin fondly, feeling like a small child all over again. She looked down at her hand, realizing belatedly that she had abandoned her gloves when leaving her workstation. For once, the scars that stared back at her with eerie silence, reminders of the nightmare she had been forced to endure, didn’t seem to bother her. Instead, all Edelgard could help thinking about was how incredible Byleth had been able to make her feel with a touch on the shoulder and a handful of words.

If heaven was real, she was sure that she had managed to steal a breath of it from the goddess herself.

~~~~~

Her punishment was a breath of hell.

Edelgard felt as if she suddenly lacked the strength to take in air as she saw the stones of the monastery start to crumble. Byleth was within range of her voice, and she called out with hopes of getting her professor’s attention, but she was too late, and the echo of her screams reverberated in her ears endlessly as everything continued to fall apart.

The dust and rubble made it impossible for Edelgard to see exactly what had happened, but part of her, the darkest remnants of her nightmare beneath the palace, said that Byleth must have died. Who could survive being crushed by the full force of the monastery? Garreg Mach was the most impressive structure on the continent, and it was impossible to deny that those ancient stones had the power to take lives if manipulated in the proper way.

Edelgard did her best to suppress these thoughts, recalling what had happened with Solon. Byleth had seemed to be dead and gone, but it was only a matter of minutes before she carved a hole in the sky and emerged with an aura that was constantly on fire. Byleth had escaped death time and time again both in front of and away from Edelgard’s eyes. She had to be capable of another miracle. Byleth was Edelgard’s goddess, and even if Sothis had failed her, she had to believe that Byleth would not. It was all she could grasp onto in a world that had been hostile to her for far longer than she could remember.

Edelgard heard a cough from somewhere behind her right ear. She realized that Dorothea was hobbling to her side, Ferdinand bracing his hands firmly on her shoulders to ensure that she didn’t collapse between the cut on her leg and dust in her lungs. He looked so weak, and Dorothea was just the same, both on the verge of giving into the hopelessness that had started to sink in as soon as the monastery went down. Hubert was on Dorothea’s other side, and the rest of the Black Eagles weren’t far away from him. His expression was just as solemn as ever, but Edelgard could have sworn that she saw some extra tension on his face that he regularly lacked.

A small sob escaped Bernadetta’s lips, weak and heartbreaking. Tears were already streaming down her cheeks in rivers, accompanied by a splash of blood streaked across her chin from a small cut. She didn’t bother to wipe either of them away. Petra was shocked into silence, her eyes wide and skin far too pale. The bewildered expression on her face didn’t fit the powerful warrior of Brigid Edelgard had come to know in the slightest.

Caspar’s hands had clenched into fists, shaking and alight with an angry, fiery passion. A scream was on the verge of tearing free from his lungs to echo into the soundless, dusty twilight air. Linhardt didn’t bother attempting to soothe him, knowing that it wouldn’t do any good when his childhood friend got to be this way. His eyes were glossed over with a sensation Edelgard could only describe as grief, though she prayed that his conclusions were wrong despite the nagging despair that was already beginning to tear her apart.

Eight small, fragile Eagles gathered together, silent in the face of what seemed to be the death of a comrade. War took lives, and everyone was aware of the bloodshed and graves that marred the land from past struggles, but it was impossible to believe that someone so beloved had fallen so quickly. Where the hell was their beautiful, glorious miracle when they clung to the idea so desperately after hearing the church speak of it on countless occasions? Where was the blessing of the goddess who was said to have the power to change the tides of fate forever? Where was the kiss of destiny that lingered in the land of dreams that they had come to hope for without even realizing it?

Despite the apparent demise of their professor, there was a sense of silent determination that fell over the Black Eagles. Edelgard was the first one to move, taking a step towards a pile of rubble that had once made up the monastery. She curled her fingers underneath a rock and pulled it upwards, tossing the debris off to the side. The fabric of her gloves was already growing weaker under the strain, but she didn’t give that a second thought. Instead, Edelgard reached down to grab yet another rock, desperate to reach Byleth. The professor had to be somewhere underneath what remained of Garreg Mach. She simply _had_ to be.

Slowly, the rest of the Black Eagles joined in on the search, and while no one spoke, every word they were thinking was understood perfectly. The silence spoke volumes more than any sentence could ever hope to. Byleth had to be alive, and they were going to find her. Even as the sun slowly sunk over the horizon, giving way to a sky of dulled stars, the rescue attempt continued. If Byleth was alive under those rocks, they were going to find her. It was the least they could do for their professor after all Byleth had done for them over the course of the past year. Desperation pushed them onwards, and even as exhaustion sunk in, they didn’t stop searching. Adrenaline faded, giving way to numbness, denial, and grief, and yet, they continued tossing rocks and fragmented stone aside with solemn expressions and glassy eyes.

It wasn’t until hours had passed that they finally relented. Linhardt and Dorothea had long since run out of healing spells for the cuts forming across the palms of the Eagles. So many rocks had been discarded, and none of them showed even a trace of Byleth. Too many failures had added up, and all Edelgard could do was stare at the untouched segments of the monastery. Her eyes slowly dropped to her palms, and she saw that her gloves had been destroyed along the way, torn to shreds under the jagged edges of Garreg Mach’s remnants. Her shortcomings pounded at her mind mercilessly, but beneath that, her resolve grew stronger with the promise of the future improving from the great tragedy that had befallen the Black Eagles.

Even if she had failed that night, she was going to find Byleth one day. She was sure that her teacher was still alive somewhere, and she was determined to bring Byleth back into the light that existed at her side. Edelgard was going to feel the kiss of flames on her face once again, and she held the oath tightly to her chest even as her footfall, echoing in the silent night, took her away from what remained of the monastery. 


	3. Part Three: Interlude

The Battle of Garreg Mach was the final time that Edelgard could live as a student. She had a reputation to uphold as the emperor of Adrestia, and it led to her hanging up her uniform for a final time. As she shifted from the familiar dark fabric of the Officers Academy uniform into red armor, she found herself staring at the red cape and black top for far longer than she should have. Edelgard had half a mind to toss it out, to start her life anew as the emperor rather than as a former student turned into a ruler, but she couldn’t bring herself to remove the fabric from her life.

When she looked at it, she couldn’t help but think of everything she had accomplished alongside Byleth, and it wasn’t possible for her to leave that behind so soon. She was still clinging to the hope that Byleth was alive somewhere. No, it wasn’t hope--it was truth. Byleth had to be alive out there, and Edelgard had to find her. Getting rid of the uniform seemed like giving up on her, and that wasn’t something Edelgard was going to be doing, not then, not ever.

Instead, Edelgard tucked the uniform into the corner of her closet for safekeeping, relishing in the knowledge that no one would disturb it where she had hidden it. She could look back on it as a reflection of her good times with Byleth until her professor had been found. It was sentimental, yes, but Edelgard didn’t find that to be a bad thing in the slightest. After all, without sentimentality, she would have lost her heart and humanity long ago.

Without Byleth, she wouldn’t have either one.

~~~~~

Hanging up her uniform also meant relinquishing her Flame Emperor armor, and Edelgard couldn’t escape the pull of the crimson and cream mask no matter how hard she tried.

She found herself coming back to the armor that stood tall and proud in her room, looking at her reflection in the mask. She remembered how heartbroken she had been the day she raided the Holy Tomb, fearing that Byleth would fight against her even after they had spent so much time together. Her concerns were in vain, and as glad as Edelgard was for that, she wished that Byleth could have been by her side in the aftermath of the Battle of Garreg Mach.

Edelgard knew that it hadn’t been that long, but she looked so much older when she stared at the other version of herself. In such a short span of time, she had experienced grief all over again, losing someone who she had come to think of as family when no others stood by her side. The Black Eagles had acted as a perfect team for her, filling every vacancy left behind by the agony and trauma of her youth, and Byleth was just the same.

Exhaustion pulled at Edelgard’s skin, and she wondered when she had gotten that pale. Her eyes had lost their previous glow of gentle hope, but she replaced the lavender irises with fire. That was what she was sure Byleth would have wanted for her. The least she could do was live on in the memory of ashes that had brought her so far.

Edelgard returned to the mask every once in a while until she forced herself to push it into another corner of her closet. It was on the opposite side of the closet from her uniform, showing the contrast of the two sides of her life. Both of them had brought her to the path she walked then. Both of them had brought her to dancing ashes. Both of them had brought her to Byleth.

From time to time, Edelgard pulled both of them out, just to remember when times were simpler. The illusion of comfort swept her in, and she was always left with raw emptiness upon returning to reality and being forced to see how complex and labyrinthine her life had become. She wanted to know why had it ended this way, but she never found her answer.

~~~~~

The first anniversary was the hardest.

Edelgard’s forces had taken up residence in the monastery. They were working to clear it away, removing the rubble that had once constructed the ancient halls of Garreg Mach. It was a strong position defensively at the center of the continent, allowing for easy access to Leicester and Faerghus when the conquest began. The unification of the content was coming soon, and Garreg Mach was the perfect place to operate out of for such an important mission.

The first anniversary of the Battle of Garreg Mach brought with it a cruel, unfortunate twist of fate. The remaining debris had been fully cleared away, but there were still no traces of Byleth. Edelgard halfway expected to find a torn sleeve, a splash of crimson, or a tuft of mint green hair, but nothing surfaced. It was proof that something else must have happened to Byleth as far as she was concerned, and that gave her the drive she needed to keep looking.

The rest of the Black Eagles were starting to grow jaded. That much was obvious by the way their smiles began to slip away when their denial slowly melted into endless sadness. Their previous enthusiasm seen when Edelgard offered updates on the search had faded, giving way to a silent grief that they were afraid of wording. Mentioning Byleth’s name elicited one of two reactions at that point: despair masked by a weary smile or a recollection of fond memories. Both were done by those left behind in agony. Edelgard did her best to support her Eagles while not giving up hope for herself. Byleth simply had to be alive. If she wasn’t, what the hell was the point of her slowly restoring her faith in Sothis?

~~~~~

Edelgard found herself in the cathedral more often than usual on her worst days.

When she clasped her hands together in prayer in front of what was left of the grand statue at the back of the hall, she didn’t see Sothis when she closed her eyes. Instead, she only imagined Byleth in her radiant glory, and Edelgard was starting to wonder if there was a difference at all.

The same string of words always left her lips. She asked for Byleth to come back, but her prayers were always answered with silence. Sothis had never listened to her, but she knew that Byleth would have if she had the ability to. Edelgard hoped distantly that her ashen goddess would return soon. It had been far too long, and she needed something to drive her onwards.

~~~~~

The battle hit a stalemate, and Edelgard wanted things to change. She feared such happening when she first waged war against the church, but all of a sudden, it was a grim reality that she couldn’t escape. There was no way to press onwards, and morale was low. She could only think of one thing that would make everyone want to fight again.

The only problem was that it was going on three years since Byleth’s disappearance, and there still weren’t any traces that she had survived. Edelgard was still intent on believing with every ounce of passion she had in her body that Byleth was out there somewhere, but she was starting to wonder if perhaps she was fooling herself. Maybe she was pushing away the truth as a way of denying that she had lost someone else. She couldn’t acknowledge that another person she had cared for was gone after all she had gone through. This war had been started to keep those she held dear safe, so what was she fighting for if she couldn’t even accomplish that?

~~~~~

A makeshift memorial was set up in Byleth’s honor within the graveyard.

Edelgard didn’t know about it until Dorothea mentioned it in passing, and she went to investigate as soon as she heard. She found it littered with flowers and realized it was the fourth anniversary of the Battle of Garreg Mach. Everyone else had given up hope, and despair had fully set in.

Edelgard waited until she was alone before she fell to her knees in silent sobs. She didn’t want to give up, but fear twisted brutally in her stomach. What if she had been wrong to declare that Byleth was still alive somehow? Was she simply delaying the time she would be forced to accept the inevitable? Had she been holding onto false optimism this whole time?

She couldn’t stop crying once she started, and it wasn’t until her eyes had gone dry that she was able to rise to her feet again. Edelgard was careful to avoid the Black Eagles on the way back to her room, and she pulled her uniform free from its place in the corner of her closet. She pressed the fabric to her face in an attempt to gather even a whiff of Byleth’s scent, but she found nothing. Still, she continued to try out of pure desperation until she was damn near breathless.

It wasn’t until after night fell that Edelgard went to Byleth’s room. Everything was the same as it always had been. She sat on her teacher’s bed and buried her face in her hands. Dust flew freely in the air, but she ignored such and continued to inhale and exhale, each action deep and heavy. She could still detect Byleth’s familiar scent when she closed her eyes, and Edelgard wondered if it was the last she would ever be able to experience of her beloved professor. 


	4. Part Four: War

It should have been the reunion night.

In a perfect world, the thousandth anniversary of Garreg Mach would have been celebrated that evening, but such a fate did not come to pass. Edelgard and the rest of the Black Eagles wanted to be happy, to honor how far they had come in the past five years, but none were in a festive mood. Each smile was sober and torn, as if a grin was the only thing tying each of them together after years of bloodshed. The lack of progress had sent morale lower than ever before, and Edelgard knew that each grin that appeared on the faces of the Black Eagles was false. No smile ever reached their eyes, though she shouldn’t have expected anything else. After all, they were suffering no matter how much they longed to ignore their own agony.

The plan had been for the group to divide for five years to follow their own paths before coming back together on the anniversary. In the aftermath of the Battle of Garreg Mach, eight terrified eagle chicks gathered together, too afraid to separate. The unspoken fear was that if any of the chicks stepped too far outside of the nest, death was sure to await them. The elder bird who had once watched over them had dared to fly too close to the sun, and she had been struck down for her efforts. Edelgard could sense their hesitation every time that a member of the group came up with an excuse to stay longer than they should have. The fear was too powerful and blatant to ignore, but the pain was too raw to be discussed with mere words. Other soldiers in the army who had originated from houses of fierce lions or strategic deer watched with morbid silence, understanding why they were making excuses but knowing there was no method of forcing the chicks to confess to their repressed pain.

Edelgard couldn’t deal with the teary, downtrodden faces of her comrades, so she walked up the staircase towards the Goddess Tower. The rumors about the tower proving romantic attachment were likely false, and it wasn’t as if that would work anyways if she was alone. Romance was the last thing on her mind as she climbed the stairwell and looked out the window numbly. Byleth crossed her mind, and her heart knotted itself into a complex mass that threatened to strangle her the instant she gave it the chance.

She was lying to herself. She had been for a long time.

When Edelgard stood in the chamber, she knew that she couldn’t keep trying to hide the truth. She loved Byleth, and there was no way for her to shove her feelings aside. She had attempted to bury her care when agony and grief settled deep into her bones during the aftermath of the final battle, but when she closed her eyes, she couldn’t resist the calls of her heart any longer.

Edelgard loved Byleth. That was the only word that could be used to describe their connection, and she couldn’t run from the honest reality that stared at her with soulless, unseeing eyes. Perhaps those dark eyes belonged to the shadowy face she had come to identify as death so many years ago. Either way, she wanted Byleth to be there with her in the Goddess Tower. The rumors of the structure had become nothing more than a distant memory to Edelgard, scarred by years of war and strife, but she still grasped the hope that it was real. Hope was all she had, and it was her lifeline to prevent her from collapsing into despair. The string of radiant hope felt as if it was wrapped around her throat, selecting at random if Edelgard deserved to breathe or suffocate under its power.

Hope was what kept her going. Edelgard hoped the world would change under her influence. She hoped that Byleth would return one day. She hoped that the one she admired so much returned her affections. Sometimes, she hoped so much that it hurt, and yearning for what she knew would never come to pass but still hoped for made her feel sick to her stomach. It kept her going, pushing one foot in front of the other on her worst days of dizzying emotional pain, but it threatened to destroy her from the inside out just the same. She couldn’t help but wonder if she would fall apart the second her hopes were stolen from her, when her pleas proved false after years of desperation keeping her moving through the hellscape her world had become.

If all her hopes came to pass, Byleth would have been there with her, and yet, Edelgard was still alone. Hope existed in gentle golden flames and kind mint green eyes that Edelgard hadn’t seen in half a damn decade. Despite all of this, she still wondered. She couldn’t stop herself from dreaming about the reality she could have had.

If Byleth had been alive, would she have felt the same way? Would they have found their way to the Goddess Tower together on this fateful night? Would the war be raging just outside the monastery’s halls if her professor had been there?

Melancholy reminiscence settled in as the tears sprung to her eyes. Edelgard couldn’t keep them at bay despite her vain attempts, and salty liquid streamed down her cheeks as she looked out the window. Her hands rested on the bottom edge of the deliberately carved hole as a wind kissed her cheek with cruel delicacy. The coldness of the stone seeped up through her gloves, but it didn’t ground her in the slightest. If anything, it only aided in her distance from the rest of the world. The stones began to blend together, and she couldn’t tell if it was due to exhaustion, her tears, or the sadness that had a chokehold on every inch of her body.

The echo of footsteps managed to snap Edelgard out of her trance, and she turned over her shoulder. A silhouette appeared against the walls of the stairway, and she was immediately reaching for the knife she had stored in her boot before heading for the Goddess Tower. It offered a small sense of security and relief on her worst nights, and the anniversary of that fated promise most certainly fell into the category of terrible for her mental health. Her heart pounded in her chest with the potential of a fight ringing in her ears. She didn’t know who it was, but she was determined to be ready for their arrival.

Edelgard’s jaw dropped when she realized who had been climbing the stairs.

Byleth stood firmly before Edelgard, her gaze just as stoic as it always had been. The emperor wondered distantly if this was real or merely a figment of her imagination. She had dreamed of something like this happening for years, and it seemed impossible to escape this perfect moment on days like the one she was living. She blinked in confusion, taking a step closer as her hand moved away from her boot, the knife forgotten in the name of sudden familiarity.

Byleth’s gentle smile told Edelgard that it was real, and the emperor had her arms wrapped around Byleth’s torso before she knew what she was doing. She seemed to slot perfectly into the space between Byleth’s arms, and tears continued to stream down her face. The warmth of Byleth’s body was nothing short of bliss, and Edelgard felt her shoulders tremble as a sob escaped her lips.

There were no words spoken in response to Edelgard’s cries. Byleth merely held her there as the sun began to climb over the horizon. Dawn’s illumination filled the Goddess Tower, and Edelgard’s crown glittered with a dulled sense of joy. The pure relief that filled Edelgard’s body could not be placed into words, so she didn’t try to speak. The silence spoke volumes more than she ever could. As the seconds crawled on, all sense of time was forgotten, abandoned as a reunion Edelgard had dreamed of for years finally took place. No matter how many times she repeated to herself that this was real, she struggled to believe it, wondering if perhaps her dreams, eyes, or heart were playing cruel tricks on her as they had in the past.

The smell of Byleth’s body was the same scent that Edelgard had grown used to five years prior. It was the same balance that the emperor had found in the dusty room of her professor. It was the same as it had always been, yet another sign that this was not a mere dream. Edelgard found herself greedily inhaling the fragrance, desperate for more after she had spent so many years wanting it. She doubted she would ever grow sick of that aroma after spending so long waiting for it with every part of her hopeful, destroyed body.

It wasn’t until Edelgard had no tears left to cry that the two finally pulled apart. Byleth still wore that familiar smile, and she held Edelgard’s fingers in her own tenderly. Mint irises met violet matches, and years of grief were told plainly without lips ever parting. Byleth pulled one hand away from Edelgard’s before turning towards the staircase. The returned professor led her former student down the stairwell slowly and carefully, and Edelgard was happy to follow her, not caring about the red tracks that stained her cheeks. She had once told herself that she wouldn’t let others see her cry, but she couldn’t bring herself to care about such in that moment. 

Byleth was back. That was all that mattered.

~~~~~

Having Byleth back was the push that the group needed to turn the tides of war, something Edelgard should have seen coming. She couldn’t help but smile as each battle went off without a hitch. The future was happening right in front of her, and it didn’t even seem real. It was only when her fingers graced Byleth’s gentle, battle-torn skin that she recognized this was no illusion of her mind. She seemed to need to be reminded of that each day, but she didn’t mind it at all, as it gave her the chance to connect with the person she had missed for so many years.

Edelgard watched Byleth carefully during battles just to make sure that her professor was still alright, still alive. She couldn’t identify the way that Byleth had disappeared for so long, but she wasn’t about to let it happen again. It was the least she could do for the sake of her sanity. She deserved to be with Byleth after all the suffering she had endured over the past few years.

There was only one word that could describe Edelgard’s emotions towards Byleth. It was love, but she was unsure of if admitting such would be for the best. There was too much for her to accomplish to be distracted by small feelings. Granted, her emotions had passed being small in quantity many years beforehand, suddenly acting as a monstrously large tidal wave that threatened to knock her down each time Byleth gave her that familiar smile she had come to love so much.

The war had to be her priority. She could think about the rest of her life as soon as the battles had drawn to a close, but for the time being, the world was counting on her. The continent was going to be unified first, and everything else could wait. Once she had succeeded, she could consider her next move. After years of uncertainty, the idea of the war ending had become definitive, and she was looking forward to it, longing for the day when she would no longer need to step onto a battlefield with a weapon braced between her scarred fingers.

One day, the war would end, and then there would be time for love.

~~~~~

Edelgard was sitting in the room she had made into her office just off the audience chamber, a headache pounding angrily in her skull. She hadn’t slept well the previous night after awakening from yet another nightmare regarding the past, and there wasn’t anything she could do to lessen her migraine as far as she was aware. Edelgard let out a sigh of resigned frustration before closing her eyes and leaning back in her seat.

“You’re pushing yourself too hard.”

Edelgard felt chiseled hands grace her shoulders, starting to rub carefully at the knotted muscles beneath her porcelain skin. She opened her eyes slowly, though it was far more of a chore than she would have liked, and looked up to see Byleth towering behind her. Her teacher had a concerned yet somber expression on her features, and Edelgard cringed at the sight. Byleth was upset with her for not getting enough rest, it seemed.

“It’s alright,” Edelgard insisted, but she couldn’t bring herself to move to continue her work. Byleth’s grasp was melting her, and she found that it was impossible to properly sit up. The fingers pressing against her back were simply too entrancing for her to ignore.

“Tell me that with a straight face,” Byleth remarked with a small snort and a roll of her eyes. Realizing that there was no point in trying, Edelgard remained silent, closing her eyes and curling up her head against Byleth’s right hand. The massage was truly helping to relax Edelgard already, and she would have been content if it lasted forever.

“Alright. I’ll rest after I finish planning for the next battle,” Edelgard told her, trying to reach for her pen once again. Her hand was shaky, and she wondered how long she had been trembling with exhaustion. When was the last time she had eaten again? Why couldn’t she remember without being forced to sift through her memories?

“I’ll take care of it. You go get some sleep,” Byleth insisted, moving to stand on the other side of Edelgard’s desk. Her eyes told Edelgard that arguing would bear no results. She took the pen from Edelgard’s fingers and pulled the emperor’s chair backwards.

Edelgard watched her, expression mystified, before she managed to cover her shock. She nodded solemnly, understanding that there would be no point trying to raise an objection. Edelgard found her limbs feeling as heavy as lead when she got to her feet, and one hand rose to rub at her eyes. She found herself enjoying the darkness that closed in when she did, and another heavy sigh pushed its way through her lips. She was far more exhausted than she had thought.

Byleth continued to watch Edelgard sternly, a remnant of her demeanor from when she was a teacher, and Edelgard nodded her understanding before shuffling from the room. As soon as she was in the hallway, Edelgard realized what had just happened. Her sleepiness had kept her numb to what was taking place while it was occurring, but the full recognition was starting to set in.

A smile spread across her lips as she made her way to her room, and some of the weight dragging her down seemed to disappear at the recollection of Byleth. She wanted to speak further with Byleth at some point after the war had ended, but she doubted that she would ever be able to find the words for such. What could even be said? Edelgard doubted that Byleth felt the same way as her on the matter, and there was no point in confessing the depth of her emotions if she would be met with a frown and a gentle rejection. She would rather take the secret to her grave.

Still, she was happy to embrace the joy of the events of the past few minutes as she stretched out upon her bed. Edelgard’s eyes slipped shut as sleep claimed her, and much to her surprise, nightmares did not greet her. She was met with the beauty of Byleth in her dreams, and she would have been content to sleep forever.

~~~~~

Edelgard thought that her newfound love for Byleth would drive her away from the woman she had come to care for so much, so she was surprised to learn that she felt just as comfortable around her as ever before. Even with the idea of love nagging at her every action, she felt incredibly relaxed around her professor, and she doubted that she would ever be able to push such a sensation out of her mind completely.

After the initial encounter, Edelgard stopped pushing herself as hard, acknowledging when she needed breaks to keep Byleth from needing to look at her with such stern, concerned eyes. Byleth started to smile at her more often when she realized that Edelgard wasn’t pushing herself as hard, and the emperor had to hide the way her heart fluttered when she saw that beautiful grin.

~~~~~

Over time, being around Byleth became just as easy as it had been before. Edelgard’s romantic thoughts remained just as persistent as ever before, but she was still able to worm her way past them to spend time with Byleth. She enjoyed the presence of her professor, and work always seemed to be a bit easier when she had someone in the room. She wouldn’t ever admit it, but her favorite person to have in the same space as her was Byleth.

As Edelgard planned out a strategy for the next battle, she stole glance up at Byleth with a light grin. Byleth didn’t seem to notice that she was staring, and Edelgard found herself taking in every fascinating detail with a dreamy gloss over her eyes. Byleth was just as stunning as she had been before the war started, and Edelgard knew she would never be able to push such an incredible image from her mind again.

~~~~~

Edelgard grew to be so loose and relaxed around Byleth that she found herself comfortable with expressing a vulnerability she rarely showed to others. The Black Eagles were used to this side of her to some degree, but the rest of the world thought of it as little more than a distant idea or figment of someone’s imagination. Byleth, on the other hand, was more than deserving of Edelgard’s full trust.

Edelgard sat back in her chair as her eyes swept closed. She wasn’t sure when she had come to be so tired, but she already hated it. “Ugh… I’m so sick of it all. There is so much to be done, yet all I encounter are new problems and pitfalls. Sometimes I wish I could spend just one day doing absolutely nothing and gorging myself on sweets!” she complained openly.

Byleth’s face began to change shape with the ghost of a smile appearing on her lips. “Let’s do just that,” she said simply with a shrug. Something in the way she looked at Edelgard told the emperor that Byleth thought they both deserved a break.

A smile appeared on Edelgard’s own face at the mere suggestion. She sat up properly as she spoke. “Do you mean it? Just the thought makes me happy,” she beamed. However, her moment of joy was soon struck down when she realized the primary problem with such a plan: the war was still going on, and Hubert was going to be all too eager to remind her of such a glaring issue. “But… Hubert would never allow it.”

“That’s too bad,” Byleth remarked, and Edelgard could have sworn she heard disappointment in her professor’s voice. She chose not to comment on it, not wanting to run the risk of embarrassment if she was wrong.

“Indeed. It may not be possible now, but one day we will know the joys of idling. Mark my words,” Edelgard assured her. She was holding onto the idea of peace with everything that she had, and that familiar feeling of hope, beautiful and twisted, rose in her core.

Byleth didn’t offer a verbal response, instead simply smiling over at Edelgard. Mischief glinted in her eyes as she folded her hands over her lap and continued to watch Edelgard silently.

“Is that a smirk I spy? Is it so amusing to you, me daydreaming of free time?” Edelgard questioned. Her tone was just as teasing as Byleth’s grin had been, and she felt some of her stress begin to melt away.

“You misunderstand me,” Byleth said in a way that told Edelgard that she had hit the nail on the head with her prediction.

“Huh!” Edelgard scoffed with a light chuckle. “Your silly grin says otherwise.” If she had been in range, she surely would have offered Byleth a playful nudge. Even if she was too far to touch Byleth with her arm as an act of lighthearted joy, the distance wasn’t too large for her to observe the older woman.

She stared at every minute detail, and she felt her mouth go dry. She was speaking before she even registered the words rushing through her brain. “But let’s put that aside for now. There is something I’ve been meaning to tell you,” Edelgard began. She could feel heat rising to her cheeks, but she didn’t know how to stop her face from growing pink. “I’m afraid this might sound a bit sentimental. However… I want to thank you. Because of you, I feel I can walk my fated path without losing myself. If I were alone, I might have lost perspective and become a harsh ruler with a heart of ice. But I’m not alone. With you by my side, I’m somehow free to not be only a leader but simply… Edelgard.”

The thoughts had been stirring in her mind for longer than she could remember, and late-night musings of heart and humanity rose to prominence in her head. Edelgard couldn’t bring herself to regret saying all those words though, and her smile was beyond genuine when it appeared. She knew she looked flustered, but she didn’t care, instead attempting to compose herself and offer at least the loose image of elegance. After all, they were discussing a rather solemn subject, and the joking atmosphere from a few moments before had faded away.

“You’re welcome,” Byleth said, and her smile was every bit as real as Edelgard’s was. Her eyes glimmered like gems, swallowing Edelgard whole before she could even attempt to put up a defense. Edelgard wouldn’t have fought back even if she had the power though, admiring the way Byleth’s irises shone with every fiber of her being.

“Until now, no one has been able to surpass me--much less command me. I have always been seen as an untouchable princess or emperor. No one spoke to me as an equal or met my gaze without flinching. It was lonely. Terribly lonely. The only person I could rely on as I tried to claw my way out of the darkness was myself. But you… You have been a brilliant line. Somehow, you have chased the darkness away. And for that… I will always be grateful.”

Edelgard couldn’t recall giving her mouth permission to speak those words either, but they flowed into the air regardless. She watched Byleth rise to her feet, and her former teacher was closing the distance between them once she was at her full height once again. Edelgard looked down when she felt a hand fall on top of her own, and she took great comfort in the knowledge that Byleth was just as warm as she had been five years ago when they spoke in the corner of the Empire’s underground hideaway.

Byleth was not merely light and warmth though. She was fire, guiding Edelgard though a world of nighttime, demons, and shadow without ever flinching. Edelgard herself had always thought she would be suffocated by the smoke of the fire that burned in her blood, but Byleth gave her hope that perhaps the same ashes she had once come to hate so much could act as a beacon instead.

Edelgard stared at the place where their hands met, and even though Byleth was silent, Edelgard was able to understand every single word she was thinking. Her heart beat gently in her ears, aflutter at the contact of someone who she cared for so greatly, of someone who she had waited to see again for so many years. When Edelgard finally managed to tear her gaze away, she closed her eyes, and when she did, she saw the dancing of flames. Her heartbeat slowly faded out of her earshot, replaced instead by the crackling of fire. She enjoyed the sound far more than she ever would have imagined prior to her arrival at Garreg Mach, and she allowed the song to lull her into a sense of blissful peace. The rest of the world seemed to vanish, replaced only by the music of crimson flames that filled every part of Edelgard’s once-dark life with warmth and joy.

~~~~~

The image of Byleth walking on a path made of flames refused to leave Edelgard’s mind. Even when she slept, she was met with the beautiful vision. It had come to appear with as much frequency as her nightmares, and she much preferred this alternative. Whenever she closed her eyes, the splendor of Byleth stared back at her. She didn’t know what to do with herself. Work was becoming harder due to her sudden lapse in focus, and she had to do something about it.

Edelgard took a few minutes away from planning the group’s next strike to move to her room. She had acquired painting supplies from a few other members of the army, learning in the process that Bernadetta was a far better artist than she would ever give herself credit for. Edelgard hadn’t ever drawn much aside from small doodles here and there when she needed something to do with her hands on days of endless anticipation. She didn’t know how good she would be at putting her thoughts to pen and paper, but she was still going to try.

The final image was far less graceful than Edelgard had been hoping, but she still thought that it was serviceable. As she admired her handiwork, she couldn’t help but smile to herself. Byleth truly was amazing, and the imagery of fire only made her belief in her comrade stronger. There wasn’t anything Edelgard could ever say that would give justice to how much Byleth impressed her. Edelgard’s admiration only grew with the completion of the drawing, and she wasn’t sure if this was a good or bad thing.

On one hand, she knew that she couldn’t stand to deal with such petty feelings as long as the fighting was still raging on. There would be no peace until she ended the war, but she couldn’t do something so grand and vital until she moved into action. If she wanted to find salvation, she was going to have to end the fighting, and that wasn’t going to be possible as long as she was distracted with thinking about Byleth when other matters required her attention far more.

However, Edelgard still found herself wondering. Hope had become her greatest enemy as she yearned for perhaps even a scrap of what she envisioned in the quieter moments. She wanted to spend the rest of her life with the one who had done so much for her, and she couldn’t imagine a future without Byleth at her side. She loved the warm, fuzzy sensation that came with the concept of Byleth staying with her forever, but Edelgard hated when she was dragged back to reality. She was always reminded of how her ideas of golden flames and shining green eyes were likely never going to come to pass.

Still, Edelgard loved to pretend, even if just for a moment, that she could look forward to a future of such beauty. A smile always appeared on her face at the idea, and it was this radiant feeling that had her pick up her finished work once the colors had dried. She propped it up against her vanity, smiling as it found a home off to the right of her mirror.

If Edelgard’s feelings had grown this strong though, there was still one final thing for her to do. She wasn’t sure of how Byleth was going to react, but she wanted to try. Edelgard hadn’t thought of this in years, and yet, the temptation was too much for her to resist. This was as close as she could possibly get to confessing her feelings without actually explaining the gravity of her own emotions, and she found herself willing to take that chance much to her own surprise.

Edelgard took in a deep breath and exhaled. The next time she got the chance to speak with Byleth, she was going to do it. She was going to ask Byleth to call her El.

~~~~~

The time came far sooner than Edelgard had been expecting, and she wasn’t able to back down. She found her lips forming words before she could stop herself, though she didn’t immediately bring up the subject of the nickname. Instead, she shifted her attention to something far less heavy.

A knock came at her door, and Edelgard turned as Byleth entered. A smile appeared on her face. “Oh! It’s you, Professor. I was certain it was Hubert coming to drag me back to my duties.” She cleared her throat before shifting her voice to be far closer to Hubert’s regular cadence and speech pattern. “‘Your Majesty, you must know your supreme talents are needed at present. Why not gaze at these documents instead of the sky?’”

Byleth let out a small chuckle. “That sounds like Hubert,” she agreed, taking a seat beside Edelgard in the ornate brown chair off to the emperor’s right.

“Doesn’t it?” Edelgard sighed. “And the worst part is that he’s always right, so I can’t even argue with him.” She forced herself to breathe before she spoke once again, knowing that once she started down this path, there wouldn’t be a way to stop herself. Perhaps that was for the best. “But that’s enough about Hubert for the moment. While I have your attention, I’d like to thank you for your help in that last battle. As you well know, I’m perfectly capable of commanding the army by myself. However, when you’re around, it’s somehow different. I’m not sure I can properly explain it. I suppose your perspective on the battlefield is simply sharper than mine. When you’re devising tactics and tricks for us, it’s almost as though you can read the enemy’s mind. There’s no getting around it. Your talent for strategy far exceeds my own. I’m quite jealous in all honesty.”

Edelgard did her best to push down thoughts of how the goddess was said to be strong in the field of tactics as well. The goddess would be able to read the minds of her opponents as well. It was a fitting yet cruel twist of fate in Edelgard’s opinion, but she voiced none of this, instead focusing all of her attention on Byleth.

“You have many talents that I lack,” Byleth told her firmly, just as humble as always. Edelgard hadn’t been expecting Byleth to accept such praise without at least a grain of deflection, and she wondered vaguely how well she had come to know Byleth if she could predict her actions with such success. Then again, there was always the chance that Edelgard’s inferences were making up for the one subject that she would never be able to predict the outcome of: the target of Byleth’s love and affection.

“Is that a fact?” Edelgard asked, keeping her smile nonchalant despite the racing in her mind. “Well, if you insist. I suppose a flower from another’s field is always more beautiful. I’ll admit, I think of you as rather detached, so to hear that you have emotions such as jealousy is something of a relief.”

“I could say the same of you,” Byleth said, hre regular honesty seeping into her words. Edelgard would have been offended if some others said such, but with Byleth, it was both to be expected and welcomed by the emperor.

“I can’t deny it,” Edelgard admitted. “Ever since I underwent those…” She couldn’t bring herself to call it human experimentation, so she chose the most appropriate word that sprung to mind without gracing the true darkness of the matter. “Procedures… I’ve certainly distanced myself from the ordinary world.”

When Byleth next smiled, her grin was easy and perfect. Edelgard couldn’t help but admire all of the smaller details that she had come to appreciate so much over the past few years. “It seems we were fated to be friends,” Byleth commented. If she noticed Edelgard staring, she avoided the subject deliberately.

“Friends…” Edelgard breathed. This was the moment she had been waiting for, and she knew there was no backing down after coming so far, so she pushed herself onwards. “That word somehow doesn't seem adequate. Besides, we’ve been friends for a long time, you and I. By now, we’re so much more than that, at least in my mind. You know… Instead of Edelgard, you can call me just El. If you so please, that is.”

Edelgard bit back the taste of bitter grief and despair when she next spoke. “That’s what my parents and closest sisters used to call me when I was little. Now there’s no one left who calls me El… But with you, well… I think I could allow it. In fact, it would mean a great deal to me.”

“Why is that?” Byleth questioned. Her voice was as curious as it was careful, and respect rose beneath the surface to accompany both emotions. Edelgard’s heart swelled at the sound of such a caring, lovely tone being used for a conversation so dear to her heart.

“Why? Hmm…” Edelgard pretended to contemplate the matter for a moment, pretending she hadn’t rehearsed these words countless times while motivating herself to ask Byleth for something so important. “Well, you have stood beside me and shared my burdens. As I said, you are much more than a friend. In truth, you are like family to me. I suppose that’s why.”

Byleth wrapped an arm around Edelgard’s shoulders, and she slowly returned the embrace. Her mind screamed that she should confess then and there, desperate to explain to Byleth that she wanted to be family. She longed to spend each day of her life alongside Byleth, and the temptation to explain such was growing stronger. Still, Edelgard managed to keep herself quiet, and she enjoyed every second of the hug. After it ended, she wished that it could have lasted forever.

~~~~~

The last fight against the Immaculate One grew nearer, and Edelgard found herself overcome with nerves. The end of the war would give her the chance to confess to Byleth if she so pleased, and Edelgard couldn’t tell if that was what she wanted or not. She longed to say everything that had begun to swirl in her head over the past few years, but the fear of her love being unrequited held her back.

Edelgard still rehearsed the words more times than she could count. In her wildest of fantasies, she imagined Byleth saying that she felt the same way, and Edelgard almost believed it until reality appeared when she opened her eyes. Goddess above, she hoped with every part of her body, but the prayers that she held were as violent as they were beautiful. Her hope of love was driving her forward after giving her faith in the goddess she had once cast aside due to ignorance from both parties. However, her hope of love was also consuming every part of her being, and she didn’t even want to imagine how violent the fallout was going to be the instant that optimism was carved from her chest by the brutal fingers of truth.

~~~~~

When the final encounter arrived, Edelgard thought that she was ready for it. She had led her army, her Black Eagles, into battle countless times. The battlefield had come to fear the presence of the emperor and her seven wings, all grisled soldiers fighting for the sake of the future. War was created and ended by their hands, and she was used to all the bloodshed and violence that came with it.

She was not used to seeing Byleth crumple as soon as the Immaculate One began to scream.

Edelgard could hardly believe what happened at first. Byleth hadn’t even been unsteady on her feet in the moments leading up to her collapse. Her legs simply gave out from beneath her, and the Sword of the Creator clanged uselessly against the stone ground of the burning city of Fhirdiad. Flames filled Edelgard’s lungs, and she felt her stomach burn with pain and dread. It felt as if she couldn’t breathe, and her ears were free of the familiar crackle of fire. The song that she had been dancing to since before the war began was gone, and emptiness was quickly carving itself a home at her chest. Inhaling and exhaling became a task too great for her to achieve, as if a piece of her body, her very heart and soul, had been torn out, leaving her to simply live with what was left behind.

This couldn’t be happening. Byleth had to be alright. Byleth had been one of the few people to follow her through all of this, and her professor had believed in her cause every step of the way. Byleth had been the first person Edelgard--

The emperor couldn’t bring herself to think of Byleth’s potential death, instead running mindlessly towards where her professor was sprawled on the ground. She pressed her head against Byleth’s chest, listening for any traces of a heartbeat. Edelgard mistook her own wildly pounding heart for Byleth’s at first, and her stomach sunk as soon as she realized her error in judgement.

Tears formed in her eyes against her will, and a strangled sob forced itself into existence. Byleth had just come back after being gone for so long. She couldn’t just leave again. It simply couldn’t happen. Edelgard was unable to keep herself from crying openly as she desperately prayed to whatever higher power existed out there. They had to save Byleth.

_Sothis, if you’re really out there, please do something. This is my goddess, and I can’t lose her now. Please, Sothis, listen to me for the first time ever. I beg of you. Listen to me._

There was a heavy moment where nothing happened. All Edelgard could hear was the ominous echo of her own crying and her heart slamming violently and relentlessly against her ribcage. However, the silence ended, and the sound of crackling flames filled her ears once again.

Another heart began to chime in to the beat of her own, and she slowly pulled herself away from Byleth’s chest. The song of flames began once again, a grand choir that cried beautifully in the back of Edelgard’s mind. She looked down and realized that the mint green color was beginning to disappear. The turquoise tresses that Edelgard hadn’t seen in well over six years returned, and all she could do was stare. Just to know for sure that she wasn’t hearing things, Edelgard pressed her ear down once again, and she heard a new heartbeat that was in sync with her own. The pulse of life drowned out everything else, and her tears began to dry. The song of nearby fire embraced her. She was filled with warmth, and her lungs found the power to expand once again. Her heart was slotted into its regular position at her chest, and her soul was tangible enough for her to feel its presence even without needing to see it.

Sothis had listened, and the Crest of Flames had done the same.

Byleth’s eyes opened slowly, and Edelgard threw her arms around her professor’s body immediately. It took a moment for Byleth to recognize what Edelgard was doing, but she pulled the younger woman into the embrace a few seconds later, pressing the lower half of her face against Edelgard’s shoulder. Edelgard knew that she was crying, but the sound of her own sobbing didn’t seem to register properly in her ears. She continued listening to Byleth’s heartbeat, her fingers pressed to the gentle spot on Byleth’s scarred neck where her pulse could be felt. Flames continued to cry out distantly, and Edelgard knew that they were honoring the moment in their own special way. 


	5. Part Five: After

It felt odd, announcing that the war was over.

Everyone watched her with expectant eyes, and she declared that Rhea was dead. The continent was going to begin a new age, and she was going to lead it. There would be no more oppressive religions in her world, and people would not lean against the Crests either.

And yet, she couldn’t bring herself to say that there would be no gods.

Edelgard didn’t believe in the idea of destiny. She wanted to carve her own path away from the predetermined whims of fate. Despite this, she couldn’t help but wonder about the goddess. Her thought process had evolved many times since her original conversations with Therese in the glow of firelight more than a decade prior, but she kept on coming back to the same idea of the goddess herself.

Sothis was fine for others to believe in, but Edelgard’s relationship with the woman of fire remained complicated even after the war ended. As cheers rose up through the capital of the Empire, she couldn’t help but reflect on where she had come from. She had wanted so desperately to believe in the goddess as a child, and where had it gotten her? Why was she so captivated with Sothis in the present despite her previous wishes to put the woman in her past? What had changed her views on the goddess enough to allow her to believe and breathe in the gentle smoke brought by the fire created by Sothis? It didn’t make any sense to her as questions spiraled through her mind in pure confusion, and yet, she knew the answer passively despite her denial.

For a brief time, Byleth had taken on the hair color of the Nabateans. She was just like Rhea, a child of the goddess, no matter how impossible it seemed. She had received a divine revelation from the goddess, becoming one with Sothis against all odds, and it was that one string that kept Edelgard from tipping completely into despising the woman of fire for her unhearing ignorance and selective blessings of salvation.

Edelgard watched Byleth from afar as she made her announcement that the fighting had finally drawn to a close. Byleth’s hair blew delicately and majestically in the wind, now back to its regular color of dark turquoise. She couldn’t help but smile to herself at the sight of her own goddess, and she wondered what was going to come next for them.

Byleth was a reflection of Sothis somehow, though Edelgard didn’t know the full story behind why. She could ask about it one day purely because they had survived. They had gotten through the war together, and that left the future as their plaything. They had carved a path together through flames and hell itself, and the remainder of their lives belonged to them alone. Fate mattered little, and there was all the time in the world for the two of them. There would be years for them to determine the smaller truths that established their relationship that had exceeded friendship so long ago. Against all odds, the one who vowed to bring the church to its knees had fallen into a rhythm of newfound affection with the goddess.

Edelgard knew that thinking of such made it sound as if she loved Byleth, and she was coming to terms with the truth of the matter: she did. No matter how much she tried to hide her emotions, she was met with the honest fact again and again in a dizzying cycle of spinning that never seemed to let her go. Denial would get her nowhere no matter how desperately she held onto it in return. Edelgard couldn’t bring herself to completely hate the goddess because Byleth was connected to her. Byleth was her own goddess regardless of if she was connected to Sothis or not, the final thread that kept her from losing her humanity in the process of creating a new world for all others. Byleth had grounded her in the face of war and unspeakable odds, and Edelgard had fallen in love with her in exchange.

Byleth was the goddess of her life, and hating Sothis was impossible as long as that connection existed.

With Byleth’s hair back to normal, perhaps the link was no longer present. Still, it had been for a long enough time for the goddess to seemingly imprint upon Byleth, creating an image that Edelgard couldn’t ignore any longer. The goddess was meant to inspire hope, and Byleth most certainly did that. Edelgard had come to learn the tragic, twisted beauty that came with hope thanks to Byleth. Edelgard had come closer than ever before to falling apart completely when she thought Byleth was gone, too far away to hear the emperor’s silent pleas in the dead of night, and yet, Byleth had returned. It was something Sothis had never done. The goddess hadn’t ever heard the way Edelgard sobbed and tried to escape the wretched body that was left traumatized and hollowed in the wake of experimentation, but Byleth had still reached out with encouragement in her eyes and a smile on her face.

It was strange to think that Edelgard was actually starting to believe in the goddess again after all that time. She didn’t want to follow the religion of Seiros since it had been used to harm so many people over the course of centuries, but Sothis herself could have been an exception. Edelgard wasn’t going to stop anyone else from believing in the goddess, so why would she force herself to hold back? So long as no religious monopoly like the Church of Seiros appeared again, people could pray to whatever gods they wished as far as Edelgard was concerned.

It applied to her as well.

Still, Edelgard didn’t think the time had come for her to make a decision yet. She had far more important matters on her mind in Enbarr as her subjects roared for their newfound freedom against the church’s oppressive acts. She couldn’t help but smile to herself with the knowledge of what she had done and the people she had saved from an agony that had once been thought of as endless. Her internal conflict hadn’t reached a resolution, but she was going to have far more time to grapple with both her emotions towards the goddess and Byleth since the fighting had ended. Edelgard had all the time in the world, after all.

She had all the time in the world up to a point, at least.

She still suffered from the burden of having multiple Crests, and not for the first time, Edelgard wanted to pull the flames free from her body. She still had a burning flare to bring warmth to her life in the form of Byleth, so why would she not want the secondary Crest gone? No matter her feelings towards Sothis, it was a first step that she was desperate to take, and she prayed that she was given the chance to move towards it soon. Peace had come to the rest of the continent, and she deserved to embrace her own honest bliss the same others did.

~~~~~

After the war ended, Edelgard knew that she had to go back to Garreg Mach one last time. There were many pieces of miscellaneous business that needed to be taken care of before she could officially call her work complete, and she wasn’t going to leave such important tasks to others working beneath her. She wanted to go back to the monastery herself for the sake of her own peace of mind. The idea of saying goodbye to the building was appealing to her as well. Even if it was once a mark of the Church of Seiros, the institution was gone thanks to her, and she couldn’t deny how many fond memories she had formed within the cherished halls of the monastery.

Edelgard made her way to the Goddess Tower before she even knew what she was doing. It held an oddly special place in her heart despite being named after the woman who had always ignored Edelgard’s cries for help. She couldn’t help but long to return to it for one crucial reason, something far too large for her to ignore.

It was the place where she had reunited with her goddess.

Edelgard heard footsteps on the stairway up to the tower’s primary chamber. She recognized the pattern and weight, and a fond smile appeared on her face. She didn’t even need to turn to know that it was Byleth, one of the few who had insisted on following her back to Garreg Mach for one final visit.

“The Church of Seiros has been defeated at last. The shape of the world will be forever changed. Humanity is free now. The world is ours once again. Can you believe it?” Edelgard asked, still not turning from her place by the window. Despite her mixed emotions towards the goddess, the idea of reclaiming the continent from the oppression of the church was enough to make her smile. It was a grand victory, one that she would not forget for the rest of her life. History would never forget this turning point of destiny either.

“It isn’t over yet,” Byleth reminded her, walking up to stand beside Edelgard at the window. Her hand slipped over Edelgard’s, and the emperor looked down at it silently. When she moved her gaze upwards, she found herself staring into Byleth’s teal eyes. Teal. Edelgard’s favorite color. She didn’t know when that shift had taken place, but it was impossible to ignore as she drowned in those precious irises that glowed like gemstones.

“True. There is still much to be done. We can’t ignore the possibility that our enemies will resurface one day. In the end, the fate of this world depends on the choices we make,” Edelgard replied, a smile on her face. There was something pinched and forced about it, and she was fully aware.

After all, even in the face of a fate that belonged to her rather than the blood in her veins, there was one choice she couldn't push herself make. Edelgard couldn’t bring herself to express her true feelings towards Byleth no matter how much she wanted to. Her destiny was her own, and this was one decision that rested entirely within her hands, but she couldn’t force herself to close the distance between her and those vital words that spoke of love that she had spent so many years yearning for. They rolled eternally in her head without ever finding absolution, but she was too frightened to change that. It truly was ironic; she had started a war for her ambitions and ideals, but a confession of her emotional depth was too much for her to handle.

Still, Edelgard longed to say something. When she looked into Byleth’s eyes, she felt as if her defenses were unraveling. There was only so much she could hide from her most trusted companion, and the mask she had carefully constructed was beginning to fall apart. How could she lie to Byleth? How could she hide an emotion as pure as love? How could she betray her own wishes after fighting so hard for the ability to make her own choices?

“I don’t know what the future holds, but… Come what may, will you stay by my side? You chose to protect me at the Holy Tomb. Will you choose me again?” Edelgard questioned, her voice suddenly much softer and more fragile than she had intended. “What I’m trying to say is… I need you.”

Byleth’s other hand went to her pocket, and when it resurfaced, there was a ring in her hand. “El… Please accept this gift,” Byleth told her gently.

Edelgard gasped at the sudden series of events, and heat rushed to her face. “You called me El. That’s… I… That means more than I can say…” Her gaze dropped to the ring, and she swallowed nervously. Had her palms been this sticky the whole time, or was it a new reaction to the appearance of the beautiful gift presented before her? “And this ring… It’s lovely. Thank you, Byleth. I will happily accept it.”

Byleth slid the ring carefully onto Edelgard’s finger before allowing her hand to fall back upon her own. Edelgard watched it all happen with tears slowly rising in her eyes, but she did her best to blink them back. The last thing she wanted to do was cry, even if it was out of joy at such an incredible twist of fate. “I must admit, I feared my feelings would be unrequited,” Edelgard murmured, though it felt rather obvious to her, clear enough to burn a pit at the center of her stomach. It was the reason she had stayed quiet for so long in the face of such incredible displays of emotion. “So long as I had you by my side, it never mattered how many enemies I amassed. You were all I needed. All this time, I longed to share my feelings with you, and it seems you wished for the same. Now, our wishes have come true. This feeling… It’s overwhelming.”

Edelgard and Byleth had fought together for the power to determine their own destinies, and at long last, they had selected the paths they believed in. Even so, it didn’t feel real to Edelgard, and her confession felt so much like the one she had repeated in her mind when sleep evaded her grasp. The war was over though, and she could finally afford to embrace all that she had shoved aside for so long. The outcome that she had hoped for was coming to pass against all odds, and the desperate pleas for returned feelings that she had whispered to herself in the darkness were escaping the realm of dreams to find a home in reality.

“I promise to always be there for you,” Byleth assured her, raising one hand to cup Edelgard’s cheek gently. Their eyes met once again, and Edelgard felt her heart melting against those irises she had come to treasure so many years ago.

“I promise the same. Together, we can achieve anything,” Edelgard whispered tenderly. We will crush those who slither in the dark and restore peace and order to Fódlan. I will then find a suitable successor and hand over the reins of the Empire.”

Silence filled the room for a moment before Edelgard continued, unspeakable joy bubbling over warmly in her chest. “When all that is done, it will be just the two of us. I look forward to starting our life together in the light of a glorious new dawn.”

“Let’s make it happen,” Byleth told her. They were close enough to nearly kiss, but in that moment, Edelgard was alright to allow the space between them to exist. The love filling every corner of her body was more than enough to satisfy her.

“Yes, that is all we can do for now. We must remain focused on our goals,” Edelgard said, her voice a mixture of stern and fond. “To think that I may truly call you my partner and equal now… The solitary reign of Edelgard has come to an end. From now on, we walk this path together. With time and care, the darkness shrouding this world will be lifted. You and I will become the light that shines over Fódlan… Just as you have shined upon my life.”

Choosing fate had never felt more perfect, and for the first time in ages, Edelgard’s hopes were resolved.

~~~~~

The battle against those who slither in the dark began in earnest as soon as Edelgard returned to the capital. The Black Eagles followed her into battle, and Byleth stood at her side every step of the way. There wasn’t time quite yet for them to host a wedding, but Edelgard didn’t mind. The ring around her finger was more than enough for her, and she found herself looking down at it whenever she needed a reminder of how far she had come.

The last time Edelgard had faced the Agarthans with hatred in mind, it had been when she was forced beneath the palace of Enbarr and experimented on. Of course, she hadn’t been able to fight them back then due to her youth, inexperience, and terror. That was all about to change, and she couldn’t be happier. Time had proven itself entertaining by turning the tables enough for her to use the pain she had gained because of them as a weapon to end their acts of dreadful atrocity.

The Agarthans hated the goddess just as much as Edelgard once had, but she couldn’t bring herself to be placed in the same category of mindless spite that they filled any longer. She had thought a lot about the past, and her opinion had changed regarding the goddess compared to her emotions years before. The goddess could exist in her mind even with what she had done to tear the church from the soil of the continent. Besides, what self-respecting goddess would want her name to be dragged through the mud by creatures who intended to twist her image to oppress the weak? In a way, Edelgard had done Sothis a favor.

The goddess Edelgard had grown up hearing about was fair and kind to all living creatures regardless of their affiliation with higher power. Therese had placed such thoughts into Edelgard’s mind with loving words years beforehand, and she wasn’t about to turn against such an idea after spending so much time trying to determine her opinion regarding Sothis in the first place. She hadn’t ever expected her ideals to shift this way, and yet, she couldn’t go back upon coming to this realization. She believed in Sothis in her own way by having faith in Byleth. Wearing the ring upon her finger was the same concept as believing in the goddess, and each flickering gaze to her hand showed Edelgard the truth all over again.

Edelgard’s party stood outside the entrance to Shambhala, and she turned to face Byleth. The former mercenary was off to her right, and she looked just as powerful as she had the day the two first met more than six years before. In Edelgard’s mind, Byleth walked upon a ground made of cinders with the idea of carving destiny in mind.

She turned her attention back to the entryway to the shadowed city. There were more important matters that required her attention than her lover at that moment. Edelgard would have been more than content to watch Byleth for hours, but there was vital business to attend to first. People were counting on her, and she was counting on herself.

“Let’s go,” Edelgard declared, the grip on her axe growing tighter. Aymr glinted dangerously in the light of dawn, and she took in a deep breath before exhaling once more. The time had finally come, and there was too much riding on her victory for her to back down. She wasn’t like those who slither in the dark, those who expressed a mindless need for revenge against the goddess. Edelgard had found her place in the world after fighting for years, and she was proud of such. She was going to continue battling in the name of that destiny she had determined on her own, and the ones who had hurt so many were finally going to fall because of the fate she had chosen. 

~~~~~

The Agarthans were fierce fighters, Edelgard had to admit. She had kept her skills sharp in preparation for the battle against them, knowing that they weren’t going to be holding back. They would fight with the ferocious anger that came with betrayal, and she was going to have to fight with every piece of strength she had to keep them from winning the silent war.

The Black Eagles had charged in after her, and in the city without light, they clashed fiercely against those who slithered in the dark. The twisted beings who had tried so desperately to lash out and extinguish the life of those on the surface were left shocked at the invasion, and the battle was harsh and relentless. Edelgard was no stranger to brutality, and yet, she found herself wishing that she had prepared just a bit more for the battle to come as soon as it began.

Edelgard stole a glance when she could to watch the rest of the group fight back. Linhardt had managed to move past his fear of blood during the previous war, and as he cast a wind spell to slice a foe to ribbons, he barely flinched. In fact, his eyes bordered on being apathetic, but he didn’t seem to care in the slightest for his lack of mercy. Instead, he merely moved right on to the next foe without even blinking.

Petra swiped low with her sword to knock the legs from beneath her foe before following up with a jumping slash that spilled blood. Her battle cry was fierce, and her eyes were filled to the brim with passion. She dodged the next strike that came her way, this one from an axe, before vanishing into the chaos.

Caspar shifted into the place where Petra had been with an axe braced between his hands. He struck his target, a mage, with perfect accuracy before watching as the enemy’s body fell to the ground. He gave himself a small smirk, turning around to deal another blow to a second mage. Once again, his foe’s body crumpled to the ground, but he barely gave the corpse a glance before moving on.

Bernadetta primed her bow from somewhere behind Edelgard before releasing the arrow in an upwards curve that flew for ages before slamming down into the shoulder of a sword fighter from the opposing faction. Bernadetta released another strike to finish off her enemy prior to shifting focus once more.

Hubert was the next to catch Edelgard’s attention, and his strikes of black magic were easy to pick out among the crowd. She could hear his customary laugh as he finished off one of his enemies. As usual, he didn’t hesitate, so taken up by the harsh battle that he couldn’t even be bothered to give his foes a moment of concentration.

Lysithea’s explosions of power were enough to earn the gaze of many onlookers, but she never looked away from her target. Her small form was trained for this no matter how inexperienced she looked. Another percussive echo of her dark magic hitting its target preceded her vanishing from sight.

Ferdinand rode into Edelgard’s vision next with his lance primed for another attack. He struck a foe off to his left before following up on his right, his orange hair flowing freely behind him. His smile never slipped, but she knew that it was not a matter of his affection for bloodlust. Instead, he was grinning in the name of the future he knew was growing closer with each moment of the battle that passed them by.

Dorothea raised one hand above her head, and a meteor attack slammed against the ground, eviscerating the Agarthan who had dared to cross her by striking Petra with an underhanded blow using gauntlets of silver. The city without light was suddenly illuminated in perfect clarity, flames crackling freely on the ground. Dorothea’s hair blew slightly as she was met with a wind spell before lashing out once again with a strike of fire.

Byleth’s silhouette appeared among the flames, her expression set into solemnity. She raised her blade before lashing out, and Edelgard couldn’t help but think that this must have been what the goddess looked like. Teal appeared in the firelight as Byleth continued to fight with masked zeal for the future.

Even as the fighting raged on, Edelgard kept Byleth in the corner of her vision. She knew that she would never forget the sight of Byleth stationed among endless fire, and she took it in for as long as possible while it lasted before returning to the battle. After all, she wouldn’t be able to see peace alongside her goddess until Shambhala had fallen, and they still had a long way to go.

~~~~~

At long last, the end was in sight.

Thales was standing at the opposite end of the room, his face set in scorn and hatred. Every breath that he took read as pure fury, and Edelgard knew that he was not going to be releasing the Black Eagles until one of the parties had died. His hubris was keeping him from acknowledging the truth of the situation. No matter how he looked at it, he was at a disadvantage, and she was going to make sure that they won the day.

There weren’t many Agarthans left, and Edelgard knew that this was going to be the last day they stood on the Earth that she had worked so hard to reforge. Some may have called this revenge for pushing her into such painful experimentation at a young age, but Edelgard knew better than that. This was not merely on her behalf; others had suffered as well, and she was fighting to free them of the pain that they still held by allowing them to rest assured that such atrocities would never be repeated. This was going to be the end of the cycle that had brought her so much pain.

Edelgard knew that she was standing at the apex of history as the Agarthans charged at her forces. This was going to be the day that changed everything for the people of the continent who had lived before her, carving the way for those that she knew would follow her. Nobody would ever be hurt the same way that she had, and she was going to make sure of it.

The Black Eagles were just as fierce as they always had been, and they truly earned their name as Adrestia’s Strike Force. She hadn’t ever told them the full story behind what the Agarthans had done to her, but they were fighting at her side regardless. They had enough trust in her decisions to know that if she said this was the best choice for the sake of the future, they should believe her. It was why they had followed her into the city without light in the first place.

Slowly but surely, they were able to make their way across the battlefield to where Thales was standing. His scowl only grew deeper as the seconds ticked by, and Edelgard took far more joy than she should have in the knowledge that he would never smile again. After all, he was going to die by the time the day was done, and there was nothing for him to grin about.

Byleth appeared to have the same thought process, and she was particularly vicious in tearing through the remaining Agarthans. After all, Thales had been the one to prevent her from saving Jeralt so many years prior. Seeing him was like having an old wound torn open, and Byleth wouldn’t be able to find peace until she stuck her sword through his chest or saw someone do something similar.

Edelgard stood before Thales with the Black Eagles at her sides and Sothis as her witness before raising Aymr in his direction. “It is time for you to pay for all that you have done,” she said. His blood connections to her meant little in that moment, as the peace of the future was resting on her shoulders. She had found others who acted more like family to her than he ever had, so what was the point in remaining attached when he needed to die for the path to come?

Thales never responded, seemingly not believing that she was worth the time needed to construct an answer. Instead, he merely snapped his fingers and summoned dark magic to his hand. His skin practically glowed in the light of dark amethyst before he hurled the spell forwards.

Edelgard dodged off to the side before coming in close and slashing with Aymr. His eyes bulged as soon as the axe was planted in his abdomen, and all it took was a stab from Byleth’s direction for his body to collapse. Just as Edelgard had thought, he didn’t smile as he went down.

The Black Eagles were all motionless for a moment, waiting to see if he would move, but the tense silence stretched on for nearly two minutes, and Thales never even took a breath. Edelgard was the first to step forwards, and she looked down at his body with a shaded gaze. He was dead. There was no doubt about it.

She turned her gaze upwards, and a smile appeared on her lips. The Black Eagles all understood what this meant, and relief spread from one face to another, grins contagious as could be. Caspar let out a laugh, and Edelgard swore she could have seen a few tears in his eyes at the revelation of what this meant. From there, the cheering only grew in strength until the walls of Shambhala could barely contain the jubilation brought by their victory.

At long last, it was over.

Edelgard had defeated the ones responsible for bringing her and so many others such pain. She could see Lysithea unable to stop her smile out of the corner of her eye, and Edelgard wondered if she looked the same. Before she could make a proper assessment though, Byleth appeared beside her, wrapping an arm around Edelgard’s shoulders as a light grin played at her own features. Edelgard leaned into the embrace, glad beyond imagination at what she had accomplished.

She had changed the world, and peace would be brought to the future by her two hands.

~~~~~

The end of the Shambhala campaign brought with it many celebrations, and glasses were raised in the name of victory, freedom, and liberation. Enbarr had never seemed more alive and joyful than it did the night the emperor walked back through the city’s gates. Everyone understood what her return meant, and cheers rose up into the night sky for hours afterwards. She hadn’t seen so many smiling faces until that night, and she wondered if she had ever seen countless people express such joy before.

Edelgard remained at Byleth’s side throughout the night, a smile on her face. She was set to announce their union later in the night, and she couldn’t imagine a better outcome. The rest of the Black Eagles were already aware, and their endless support had made Edelgard feel as if she was glowing as she stood at the apex of the world. It was a perfect moment, and she was going to share it with everyone in the Empire.

Of course, this was not going to last forever. Edelgard already had plans of handing over her Empire as soon as it was stabilized enough for her to pass its rule into new hands. The torch had flickered in Hresvelg fingers for far too long, and she was more than ready to press it into the palms of a newcomer who shared her ideals of freedom and equality. Judging by how many people had embraced her return with optimism and relief, Edelgard suspected that there were many who thought the same way that she did regarding the future. Selecting an heir would be difficult, but Edelgard was sure that she would be able to do it one day, and when she did, she would finally be able to enjoy the peace that she had spent so many long, difficult years creating.

But for the time being, Edelgard couldn’t help but smile to herself with more joy than she could have ever anticipated. She had finally found victory against the people who had caused so much pain over the past decade, and it felt as if justice had been served in the name of her siblings at long last. They had perished, given every ounce of their blood, for Edelgard’s survival, and she had done all that she knew how to with such an honor. She fought for them, and she would continue to do so until the end of her time on Earth with the souls of the living.

~~~~~

She wondered every once in a while if they were proud of her for all that had taken place at her command.

There were still cries of jubilant celebration piercing the starry air when Edelgard made her way to the back of the palace where a special plot of land was located. The burial ground for those of Imperial blood had been familiar to her for as long as she could remember. She went there whenever she wanted to try and connect with the spirits of her departed family. Even after spending so much time away from Enbarr fighting the war, the space still felt just as it always had.

Edelgard stood near a set of ten small graves pressed far too close together, remembering the way that they had all been carved into the ground at the same time. In a perfect world, she wouldn’t have needed to be there to visit her siblings, but Edelgard had learned a long time ago that life was far from being ideal. Her eyes glossed over the names, and she looked down at the grass. Wind blew gently around her, rustling her white hair. Not for the first time, she wished that it would return to the same brown color that she had shared with all of her siblings so long ago. If her younger incarnation saw her with white hair instead of delicate chestnut, Edelgard was sure she would have been terrified. It felt like another line had been drawn in the sand between herself and her relatives, as if the boundary of life and death wasn’t enough to keep them apart on its own. She looked nothing like them, and it was impossible for her to cling to the idea that she at least echoed their image in her pursuit of a brighter future. After all, her hair hadn’t been brown in well over a decade, and on her most melancholy of nights, she wished that she could reverse the hands of time to see that lovely color once more.

“I’m sure they’re watching over you now.”

Edelgard was pulled from her thoughts of sentimentality upon hearing Byleth’s voice behind her, as comforting as it was sudden. She turned around slowly, a sad smile on her features. “Thank you,” she whispered, unsure of what else could truly be said. Edelgard’s fingers slipped into Byleth’s, a gesture that had come to be a normality between them since Byleth’s initial proposal. Edelgard squeezed Byleth’s hand gently, shutting her eyes as her lover pulled her into a gentle embrace. She felt Byleth’s other hand find a home between her shoulder blades. The warmth of Byleth, surely brought on by the power of flames, thawed the terrible grief that had come to nest uncomfortably at the heart of Edelgard’s body, and a happiness laced with yearning began to rise from within her.

“You did all of this for them,” Byleth murmured, her words muffled by Edelgard’s hair. Her other hand stroked gently at Edelgard’s back because she knew that always made the emperor feel at least a bit better when the weight of the world was too much for her small, fragile shoulders to bear alone. “Nobody will suffer the same way that they did thanks to you. That’s something for them to be proud of… That’s something for you to be proud of.”

Edelgard smiled against Byleth’s shoulder despite knowing that the other woman had no way of seeing such a grin. “They were among the final casualties of this twisted system,” she said softly. “I’m not going to let this happen to anyone ever again. I made such an oath when I became emperor, and I have every intention of keeping it.”

“I’m proud of you for it,” Byleth smiled. She pulled Edelgard in a bit closer, and her hand squeezed at Edelgard’s gently. “You’ve done a lot for this world, Edelgard. We all admire what you did for your ambitions. That will never change.”

Edelegard nodded slowly. She couldn’t bring herself to speak, so she allowed the silence of the moment to say all that was on her mind. The quiet spoke volumes more than her words could ever hope to, and she was fully aware of such. Byleth was quiet as well, simply enjoying the presence of the woman who had come to be her beloved. Edelgard didn’t know how long they stood there together, but it couldn’t have ever been long enough. Even if they had stayed there for years, she would have still longed to return to Byleth’s arms to feel the gentle whisper of flames against her war-torn skin. Edelgard couldn’t have cared in the slightest who saw her standing there in Byleth’s arms, too wrapped up in her own joy to bother giving anyone else a second glance.

~~~~~

It was rare for Edelgard to get a moment of peace even after the war had ended. There was simply too much to be done for her to take too long on any given task, so when she had the chance to embrace the quiet, she took full advantage of it. The early hours of the morning offered her with the best opportunity, and she was more than happy to linger in bed for a little while longer to give herself the chance to sort out her thoughts. Edelgard had been enjoying a later start to the day in this fashion, her curtains shut tight against the morning sun, when the silence of her room was disturbed suddenly enough to make the emperor jolt.

Byleth didn’t even bother knocking, dashing to Edelgard’s side and shaking her furiously. The action was far from being aggressive or violent, but there was enough force to tell Edelgard loud and clear that whatever had happened was urgent. Edelgard’s heart skipped a beat in her chest, a lingering effect of the war even after it had been over for months. The fear of her world shifting into life or death, fight or flight, was stitched too deeply into her system for her to shake, and Byleth’s sudden arrival had been more than enough to trigger this.

“You need to come see this,” Byleth pressed as Edelgard’s eyes slowly fluttered open. Edelgard had already been awake, but she realized quickly that such a fact was irrelevant. Instead, Edelgard allowed her feet to fall to the floor, ready to approach her dresser to find clothing for the day, but Byleth wasn’t having any of it. She pulled Edelgard away from the room, the emperor letting out a small yelp of surprise as her lover dragged her into the depths of the castle and away from the comfort of the mattress she had been enjoying since her awakening.

Edelgard was too lost and disoriented to figure out what was going on, still trying to shake the remnants of sleep from her body. Regardless of how long she had been awake, the sudden need to be alert had caught her by surprise, and she needed a moment to return to her regular balance. Byleth, however, wasn’t willing to wait for such. Edelgard didn’t know what room Byleth was taking her to, but she didn’t wind up caring in the slightest when the door was thrown open and she saw who was inside.

Lysithea was sitting next to Linhardt, and there were tears in her eyes. Lysithea, who had always firmly refused to show weakness in front of others, was crying. She wasn’t even trying to hide it, and sobs wracked her small yet powerful frame. Edelgard wasn’t even sure if Lysithea had noticed her arrival, but she didn’t know if asking was the right thing to do or not either, so she remained silent. When she got closer via careful, slow movements, Edelgard saw that Lysithea was staring at a specific chunk of hair.

Edelgard drew closer silently, and Byleth was there by her side each step of the way. The smile that appeared on Byleth’s face threatened to distract Edelgard, but she managed to remain focused long enough to realize what the source of Lysithea’s tears was.

A single strand of hair.

Among the snowy white of Lysithea’s tresses, there was a single thread of color. Purple managed to break through the white, gentle and perfect among the cream around it. Lysithea couldn’t stop staring at the strand of violet, and she let out yet another choked sob a few seconds later. Tears continued to streak down her cheeks freely, but she didn’t bother attempting to wipe them away. Linhardt looked at her with a fond grin of his own, but he didn’t move to touch her, sensing that she needed space at this overwhelming, life-changing moment.

“Her Major Crest of Gloucester was removed,” Byleth explained, a smile appearing on her face as she turned to face Edelgard. She didn’t continue despite it being clear that there was so much more that she wanted to say. Her mind was racing, and when Edelgard looked closely, she could see all the signs of excitement and adrenaline etched as clear as day across Byleth’s body.

Edelgard didn’t realize that she was crying until after the first tear had broken free from her eyes. It slid down her cheek, but she refused to wipe it away. Linhardt had been studying a way to remove Lysithea’s Crest for months. Ever since he learned of it, he had dedicated days and nights to finding a cure for her condition. Others had to actively check on him to ensure that he wasn’t pushing himself too far in the name of helping her. Linhardt had admirable determination, never backing down against a challenge until he had won over the task standing before him.

In this case, the task was curing Lysithea, and he had done it.

Linhardt’s smile was gentle and sympathetic, something Edelgard hadn’t seen from him in a long time. His eyes told her that he knew about her secret, about the Crest of Flames, but she couldn’t bring herself to care or ask about how he had become privy to information that she had given so much effort in an attempt to keep it hidden. There had been a chance for Lysithea, so that meant there was a chance for her.

Once, years ago, she would have wondered what the point was. Sothis had cursed her with a shortened lifespan for falling victim to the influence of the Agarthans at a young age. Edelgard had wondered why she was even alive if she was merely going to die young anyways, and the thoughts intruded on her mind when she was too young to fully understand what she had been curious about. Hope had disappeared, torn from beneath her feet, and simply waking up each morning was sometimes a burden too great for her to endure. There was nothing that made her life feel worth living until she came up with the idea of revolution to ground herself against the hell that lived beneath her skin.

But things had changed. She came up with a way to change the world, and she had succeeded. Even in the aftermath of the war, she had found a new purpose for existence, a new reason to live. Byleth and the Black Eagles had become her new family. She held them all fiercely close with the promise of defending them against all darkness, and she intended to follow through with such until the day the goddess saw fit to remove her soul from the realm of the living. Edelgard had been given a reason to believe again, and with it, she had found a purpose to live.

At one point, she would have thrown her life away in frustration at a goddess who never seemed to listen to her desperate pleas for salvation. All of a sudden, she was welcoming the idea of spending years with her own goddess in a world she had created by her own hands. After years of wondering what day would be her last, she had discovered that such worries existed only in the past. She was going to survive, but that wasn’t all. She was going to thrive, and it was all thanks to the people who had entered her life.

As Edelgard continued to watch Lysithea with tearful awe, she felt Byleth wrap an arm around her shoulders. The warmth of flames heated her from the inside out, and she wondered when the fire within her would disappear in favor of the cinders she had come to care for that resided outside of her cursed flesh.

~~~~~

Edelgard fell asleep with the influence of magic from Linhardt, and when she woke again, she felt lighter.

Her eyes didn’t want to open at first, stubbornly protesting her wish to stand and see all that she had missed. Still, she managed to rise to her feet slowly but surely with the help of Byleth, whose comforting smile offered Edelgard something to attach herself to in this moment of uncertainty. As soon as her eyes were open, she locked her gaze onto Byleth, finding herself lost in those beautiful pools of turquoise.

“It’s gone.”

Edelgard turned her head upon hearing the familiar voice of Linhardt. The green-haired man was standing nearby with a gentle smile upon his features. He didn’t elaborate on what he meant, but Edelgard didn’t need any further details. She knew exactly what he meant, and she understood that was why she felt so light.

It felt as if she was walking on clouds, held back by nothing as she moved towards Byleth. Edelgard’s eyes were wide, and she could hardly believe what she was hearing.

It was gone.

Linhardt’s initial attempt to cure Lysithea of her pain had been difficult, but he managed to pull it off. The strand of purple hair among the snowy white was proof that he had found a way to save those who suffered under the power of two Crests. He understood what to do with his emperor, and by repeating the same motions once more, he was able to offer salvation to a soul who once never would have thought it possible.

“Thank you,” Edelgard murmured to Linhardt, unsure of what else could even be said. Her gratitude was immeasurable, and she was not the wordsmith that she wished she was in that instant. There was no way for her to ever thank Linhardt for all that he had done, and she wished that he found a way to understand despite her silence. He had done more for her than he could ever comprehend, saving her life and finally allowing her to enjoy peace after she had spent so many years crumbling under the weight of the power that thrived in her blood. The flames that she had grown so used to feeling beneath her skin were gone, and she was more than happy to welcome the feeling of cold at her core. It wasn’t violent or freezing at all, merely a sign that she was alright after the heat had threatened to burn her from the inside out for more than ten years of her short, fragile life.

Linhardt nodded from a distance before walking away, offering Edelgard and Byleth the space that they certainly desired. He vanished around the corner, and Edelgard looked up to Byleth with hazy eyes. Her violet irises were webbed with tears, and she didn’t bother trying to hold them back. Byleth’s thumb pressed against her cheek to wipe away a tear that Edelgard hadn’t even realized had fallen, and Edelgard leaned into her grasp. The warmth that she felt when she touched Byleth was from the other woman’s flames rather than her own.

There was no way for Edelgard to describe the feeling of weightlessness that had overcome her since the end of the procedure. She hadn’t been awake for long, but she knew that she hadn’t felt this incredible physically in more years than she could ever hope to count. She pulled away from Byleth slowly, each inch she stepped back filled with hesitation and uncertainty, before letting her right hand rise. She attempted to conjure the power of the Crest of Flames as she had done for Byleth when she confessed the truth of the horror that lurked in her blood. The action was familiar to her, and she knew exactly how to do it.

And yet, nothing appeared.

Edelgard stared at her outstretched palm as she began to cry openly. Sobs left her lips, and Byleth pulled her in close. Edelgard couldn’t bring herself to return the gesture, too overwhelmed from the power of her own shock and relief to move or otherwise reciprocate the embrace. For the first time in what felt like more than a decade, Edelgard felt nothing but pure, unfiltered hope. There were no reservations or strings attached to this optimism, and Edelgard felt as if she was flying high enough to touch heaven itself with her slender, delicate fingers. She had never felt a freedom so liberating, and she knew that she would remember this feeling for the rest of her life.

~~~~~

Byleth was the first one to notice the strand of brown among the snowy white of Edelgard’s hair.

It was one morning less than a week before the date of their wedding that Byleth gently tapped at Edelgard’s shoulder to earn the attention of the emperor. Edelgard had woken slowly before Byleth gestured to the piece of natural hair against cruel white. Afterwards, Edelgard’s eyes snapped open, and all she could do was smile at the single thread brown hair.

Tears welled up in her eyes, and she leaned against Byleth carefully. It still didn’t feel real despite how long she had been without the Crest of Flames. Weeks had passed since the procedure ended, but she was still grappling with the reality that she had reclaimed her life from before the Agarthans tainted her young form with power she never asked for. There truly was nothing else running through her veins anymore, but no matter how many times she repeated the words, they still didn’t seem as if they were true.

The evidence was there though, and she couldn’t deny it, not that she would ever want to anyway. The Minor Crest of Seiros was all that she could use in battle, and she couldn’t have asked for anything better. When her palm was turned upwards, there was only one symbol that appeared, and it was the one that she preferred by far since it was gifted naturally rather than pressed into her skin through the suffering others.

It was still going to be a while before Edelgard’s hair fully returned to normal. The one hair had taken nearly six weeks to appear, and there was still a lot for her to see gain color once more. Still, the sight of the brown was enough to fill her chest with hope, and she swelled with an optimism that she hadn’t felt in many years. The sensation of weightlessness returned once again, and Edelgard imagined that she was stretching high enough to touch the clouds each time her eyes gently fluttered shut.

Byleth was more than content to hold Edelgard as the latter cried silently. For once, she was crying out of joy where her second Crest was concerned after spending so many years caught up in her own agony over the flames that licked at her core. Edelgard didn’t think that something of this nature had ever happened before the procedure, and she was beyond overjoyed. At long last, the suffering caused by her Crest was starting to draw to a close, and she couldn’t even begin to express her gratitude. The pain of losing her siblings would never fully fade, but she would at least be given the chance to make peace with her trauma and move towards a world where she was no longer actively harmed by it. She had been so sure that the Crest of Flames would bring her nothing but grief for her entire life, but such thoughts were far from her mind as she curled against the side of her beloved.

The Crest of Sothis had hurt Edelgard more than she could ever begin to describe, but it was capable of offering life and healing just the same way that it had stolen her hope and destroyed her spirit years ago. Edelgard met Byleth’s eyes silently before leaning in for a kiss. Their lips pressed together gently before Edelgard pulled back slowly. The emperor allowed her eyes to slip closed, and the symbol of the Crest of Flames appeared in her mind’s eye.

However, the Crest was not bathed in blood the way that she had thought of it since escaping the catacombs of Enbarr. Instead, there was light of a splendid teal. The color had been her favorite for years, and seeing it alongside something she had once hated so strongly was oddly liberating to her, as if she was finally forming a mutually beneficial agreement with the past that everything was going to be alright.

Edelgard looked back to Byleth after the image faded into the recesses of her mind. She saw the same splendid turquoise color in Byleth’s eyes, and the two stared at one another for what felt like an eternity, uncaring of the reality that expected action from them. The rest of the world could wait for a while longer. Only Edelgard and Byleth mattered in that moment.

In the distance, flames gently whispered with the promise of beauty.

~~~~~

On the day of her wedding, Edelgard hid her hair beneath a curtain of white.

There were five brown strands now, and she counted them whenever she woke up in the morning. Still, she was happy to cover the newfound color with a veil of transparent white fabric when the time came. She was going to be marrying Byleth, after all, and she wanted to look her best.

Byleth had told Edelgard that she didn’t need to wear the white veil if she didn’t need to, but Edelgard decided to anyway. She didn’t hate the color the way that she once had, and when she looked at her reflection, the white didn’t stick out as a target of her enmity much to her own surprise. Instead, it was merely another part of the beautiful picture being painted by her wedding ensemble on the best day of her life. Much like the Crest of Flames itself, the gentle color of silver was capable of beauty despite her sorrowful experiences of the past.

The moment where the two confessed their love at the altar was nothing short of magical. Edelgard basked in the attention of the Black Eagles as she shared another kiss with her beloved, and their hands slotted together perfectly. She and Byleth had agreed on a smaller wedding, keeping the festivities to only the Black Eagles who had remained so loyal to them throughout the war. Edelgard thought it was better this way, enjoying the company of those that she cared for more than anything else. The Black Eagles were her family, after all, and she wanted them there on her wedding day.

It was strange to think of them as connected to her in such a way after how many years Edelgard had agonized over her lack of familial connections. Still, she knew that the rest of her former classmates fit the description perfectly, and she thought they were beyond deserving of the title. They had been there for her every step of the way, and they would undoubtedly continue to stand by her side for years to come. Their bright smiles were more than proof of this, and she wanted to capture the way their expressions all lit up at the sight of her forever. When she closed her eyes for hours afterward, she remembered their grins, and she committed the snapshot to her memory.

Edelgard enjoyed the sight of Byleth’s eyes throughout the rest of the evening as well, and they were never far from one another’s side. On one of the greatest days of her life, Edelgard couldn’t help but embrace the pure bliss that she had found after struggling for so many years. No matter how many times she tried to focus on something else, Edelgard found her lavender eyes darting right back to Byleth all over again.

Byleth thumbed at the edge of Edelgard’s veil, and the emperor looked to her wife with a serene gaze. Edelgard leaned into Byleth’s hand gently, allowing her eyes to sweep shut. She couldn’t imagine a better scenario, and pure bliss seemed to be flowing through her veins in place of blood. Once again, she graced heaven, and she knew that it was because she had enjoyed basking in the glow of flames for so many years.

The party continued around them, and Edelgard was vaguely aware of the rest of the Black Eagles enjoying the festivities. Still, she allowed herself to concentrate only on Byleth even if her vision was filled with darkness brought on by her eyelids. When she wasn’t imagining the smiling faces of the Black Eagles, of her family, she was thinking of how incredible Byleth looked in silvery white. The two of them truly had come far compared to the day they first met so many years ago, and Edelgard wouldn’t have traded it for the world.

Byleth had created a beautiful corner of the world to share with Edelgard, and it was something the emperor would never be able to thank her for enough. Edelgard had gone so far to find a way to carve her own fate, and when she was finally given full control over destiny, she and Byleth had made the perfect choice. The path ahead was sure to be even more beautiful than before, and Edelgard had been enjoying it so much already.

The two of them shared a brief kiss when nobody else at the party was watching. It was as delicate as it was fleeting, but to Edelgard, it was more than enough. She couldn’t stop smiling afterwards, and when she stole glances at her new wife, she saw that Byleth was in much the same situation.

There was no better way to end this story of lost souls, revolutionary battles, and smoldering futures.

~~~~~

Some time had passed since the wedding, and Edelgard’s hair was beginning to regain more of its brown color. White was still in the majority, but any progress was a step towards the positive in her eyes. She had long since lost the ability to count the strands of brown that fell down her shoulders in a gentle cascade, and even if they were a clear minority, she knew they were growing in number. Her hair had come to appear as a silent battle of snow and earth, and she couldn’t wait for the beauty of stone to firmly grasp victory when the ice of a decade and a half melted at last.

Night had fallen in Enbarr, and Edelgard was wandering around the palace quietly. Her duties for the day had been carried out, but she wasn’t yet tired enough to fall asleep fully. She decided to walk around the castle for a while to clear her mind. Her steps gently fell against the ground below, and she listened to the song of her own footfall with drooping eyes.

Edelgard’s exploration of the palace drew to a close when she came across a familiar corner of the palace. She stopped in her strolling and turned to face the area to her right. Her expression slipped into sullen reminiscence, and a tragic smile graced her features.

It was the same hearth room that she and Therese had spent so much time in when they were younger. Edelgard still recognized the simple velvet of the space, and the same stool that had always sat before the fireplace was still there. The wood had been lit, and orange and red flames crackled softly, beckoning Edelgard to come closer. They whispered for her presence, and she listened after years of deliberately ignoring their silent pleas.

Edelgard allowed herself to sit down, and she watched the flames dance silently. Her eyes closed, and in the back of her mind, she remembered when Therese wrapped an arm around her shoulders and told grand stories of a woman bathed in fire who saved the sick, suffering, and weak from pain with a smile across her face. She could still see the light in Therese’s eyes when she focused her memories, creating an image that she would have done anything to return to after years of living in her own grief with no way of escaping it.

_“They say the goddess held the Crest of Flames.”_

The Adrestian Empire had been connected to the Church of Seiros since its conception, and she had been expected to follow up the path of praising the goddess just as all of her ancestors had done. Still, Edelgard had turned away from the goddess as soon as Sothis stopped listening to her desperate pleas for salvation. At the time, she had been sick, suffering, and weak, and Sothis had been an easy target for her animosity. She needed something, or rather, someone, to act as the target of her enmity when there was nothing left for her to yearn for, and Sothis had been right there. It was the simple way for her to continue living, offering her a sense of productivity regarding her own agony without actually forcing her to act on her anger or think critically about the experiences carved into her blood.

After slipping into the easy rhythm of hating the goddess for many years, Edelgard had thought that she would never be pulled away from her pessimism. What good was a goddess who didn’t listen to the very people she claimed to protect? Legends of a woman born of fire faded away to pragmatism, scarred by white hair, crimson blood, and obsidian tombstones for the young.

Since those days, Sothis had returned to Edelgard’s life, albeit in a rather unorthodox way. Even if Byleth didn’t talk much about her transformation, Edelgard understood it. Somehow, Byleth had become the goddess, and Sothis had been there inside Byleth from the start. The goddess had breathed life into Byleth and earned the admiration of Edelgard effortlessly. When all hope seemed to crumble, Sothis had proven herself once again, and Edelgard went back on everything she thought she had once known regarding her thoughts towards the divine.

There was only so much credit that Edelgard could offer the goddess though. Byleth may have been the reincarnation of Sothis, but the goddess was not the one choosing the path that Byleth followed. She had selected her own fate and walked towards it without hesitation at Edelgard’s side. The goddess granted Byleth the power to choose, and Byleth had been more than happy to walk towards the path that would suit the world best. The fires of the goddess curled around her feet all the way, but at the end of the day, it was Byleth’s choice that had brought them to the end of the war, ending the tyranny of the Church of Seiros along the way.

Edelgard’s emotions towards Sothis were complicated, but her feelings towards Byleth were nothing of the sort. Her simple hatred aimed at Sothis had turned to simple admiration towards Byleth. Through trials and tribulations, Byleth had been there for her, and Edelgard couldn’t hold back her praise for someone so incredible. Even if she hadn’t possessed the power of Sothis, Byleth would have been a goddess in Edelgard’s eyes. Every accolade she had earned was of her own doing. Sothis’ presence wouldn’t have changed a thing regarding the person Byleth had decided to become.

The Crest of Flames had once been a twisted symbol of Edelgard’s will for revolution. She was intent on using something she had earned through the agony of others to change the destiny of the land into one that would not allow for such atrocities to ever play out again. She manipulated the power of the very goddess who she had been so sure ignored her for years to change the fate of humanity and unify a world long lost to war and strife. Edelgard came to stand at the top of the universe, looking down upon those who had suffered and promising to change everything in the days to come. She used it in the name of the future while hating everything that the mark of cinders stood for.

However, such had changed, and Edelgard could only think of it as an embodiment of peace. The Crest of Flames had taken so much from her, but it had also given her hope. Once she moved past the optimism that burned so brightly it hurt, she had nothing left but the gentle shine of aspiration, and she loved the idea of what was to come after hating it for so long. She had found light and kindness in a place that she had once hated so much, and love arose in her life after years of suffering. She walked a path of beauty and healing lit by the flickering glow of red flames.

Fire had the power to destroy, but it had just as much capacity for recovery and growth.

Edelgard opened her eyes when she heard someone beside her. Byleth slid into the place at her side, a blanket in her hands. She smiled wordlessly before wrapping the fabric around their shoulders, leaning against Edelgard slowly. Both of the women continued to watch the flames dance in the silence, slowly getting closer to the other and taking immense joy in the place they had found themselves in.

The emperor returned to her thoughts immediately once she was settled, a smile rising on her face. She had been through more than she could ever hope to describe, but in that moment, she was content. She had once despised every ounce of horrible blood that shared a link to the goddess. Soon, she came to hold a strange sense of care towards it, knowing that it connected her to the person that she loved with every fiber of her being.

But she didn’t need the Crest of Flames anymore to connect her to Byleth. She was able to reach out to the woman she loved without needing to manifest the power of a Crest. In fact, Crests were useless in Edelgard’s new world. They weren’t necessary to dictate power or societal structure. They didn’t have a purpose in linking Edelgard with Byleth either.

Edelgard threaded her fingers in between Byleth’s silently, relishing in the warmth that the contact brought her. Her eyes remained fixated on the fire dancing in front of her, and she imagined the outline of the woman she loved walking against the flames. It was just like the stories that Therese had told her so many years ago. Every bit of glory she ever could have dreamed of played out against the dark curtain of her eyes as soon as her lids slipped shut.

The goddess was a woman bathed in fire. She left cinders where she walked, and light filled the space around her.

Edelgard had fallen in love with a woman whose fate was carved in ash. Embers filled Edelgard’s hand as she clutched onto Byleth, and she admired the beauty of smoldering fire a few feet before her.

Flames had brought her pain, destruction, darkness, agony, and despair. However, they had also brought her courage, loyalty, light, beauty, and healing. She reveled in the knowledge that the sincerity of pure love was never far from her grasp. Passion filled her every action, something that she had not enjoyed for many years. She had created a path based on integrity to everything she had ever believed in, and it was far more stunning than she ever could have expected.

She came to possess friendship through the revolution of her own flames, earning the trust and care of others even in times of terror and war. She relied on herself and others, something she never would have thought to do if not for the power of ashes. The fire had brought her to Byleth, and the sun finally shone down on her tempestuous world after she spent so many years fumbling in the darkness. It was pure bliss, and she had never expected herself to experience such incredible joys when she shed her first tears of sorrow as the emblem of fire appeared on the Crest identifying device’s sensor so many years ago.

Edelgard had fought for her future against countless obstacles before emerging in morning light. The wind rested at her back as she looked to a future of life with hair of radiant earth rather than frigid snow. The flames that burned in her life were too powerful for any deluge to extinguish, and she couldn’t ask for anything better. There was no future that could possibly outshine the one she had made for herself.

Edelgard looked up to her lover, silently admiring those eyes of beautiful teal. Byleth’s irises were overcome with the sight of gentle fire that danced the same way that she, the woman bathed in flames, the goddess, did upon the battlefield. She had brought such splendor to Edelgard’s life, and the future was waiting for the both of them to continue embracing it with the break of each dawn on the boundary of the sky. From the moment the sun edged over the horizon to the instant the moon climbed through dusk heavens, fate was theirs. Together, Edelgard and Byleth would continue walking along the path of beautiful ashes, an emperor and her goddess side by side, silhouettes glowing against the passionate glimmer of a dawning day.

Flames had brought her death, and they had brought her life.

Such was the price of flame.

**F I N**

**Author's Note:**

> Whew! And there it is! 
> 
> I want to thank everyone who took the time out of their day to read this story. I’ve been nursing this piece into existence for ages, and it’s an honor to me that you came this far. I had a lot of fun working on it, and I hope that you enjoyed reading it just the same. Your support is greatly appreciated. 
> 
> Next, I want to once again thank Kate for her work on the art seen in this story. Both pieces look incredible, and she was incredibly fun to work with. Once again, if you want to check out her art, you can find her Twitter account [here.](https://twitter.com/witchesgonewild) She does amazing work, and I would fully recommend checking her out if she decides to open commissions in the future. 
> 
> If you wish to give me support, then you can follow me on my Twitter account [here.](https://twitter.com/__digitaldreams) You can also check out my other pieces here on Archive of Our Own. I admittedly don’t write much for Three Houses canon (most of my Three Houses content is over my fangame), but I do write for other Fire Emblem games. I’m currently doing a full game rewrite of Fire Emblem Fates if that sounds like something that would interest you. 
> 
> Once again, I thank all of you from the bottom of my heart for reading this story, and I hope that you enjoyed it. Feedback is always appreciated, and I hope that you all have a nice day! 
> 
> -Digital


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